CHAPTER TWO Adjective Phrases

2.1 Adjective phrases in English 70

2.2 Adjective phrases in Thai 74

2.3 Comparative adjectives 88

2.4 Intensification of adjectives 91

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 CHAPTER TWO

ADJECTIVE PHRASES

Chapter two is complementary to chapter one as adjective phrases are

closely related to noun phrases. This chapter provides a detailed
description of the adjectival phrases in English and Thai. The chapter first
discusses the characteristics of the adjectival phrases in English. It next
deals with Thai adjectives and their constituents.

2.1 Characteristics of the Adjectives in English

An adjective is a part of speech or word class mainly used to pre-modify

nouns and as a complement to copular or linking verbs. It describes the
thing, quality, state, or action which a noun refers to. Compared with the
noun phrases, the adjectival phrases are relatively simpler as they mainly
consist of a head and one modifier.
According to Geoffrey Finch (2000: 82), adjectives are words which
specify the attributes of nouns. Typically, they give information about the
size, colour, shape and appearance of entities.
An adjective phrase is a phrase with an adjective as head, as in 'very
happy\ There are simple adjectives such as good, bad, big, fat, young,
old, simple, etc. and derived adjectives which are formed through adding
suffixes to nouns and verbs, such as -able adorable, -fill careful, -ic
economic, -ive talkative, -ous dangerous, etc.
Adjectives are usually defined by their distribution, that is, where they
can occur in word strings. They are characteristically found in two places:

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first, in an attributive position within a noun phrase and a predicative
position (Quirlc and Greenbaum, 2008: 127).
Adjectives are attributive when they pre-modify noun. They appear
between the determiner and the head of the noun phrase:
The beautiful painting
Our main objective
The lovely book
Some adjectives have a heightening or lowering effect on the noun they
modify. Two semantic subclasses of intensifying adjectives can be
distinguished : emphasizers and amplifiers (ibid, 134):
The examples of emphasizers which are attributive are :
A certain wirmer a real hero
The examples of amplifiers which are attributive are:
A close fi-iend utter folly
The very end A great supporter
Some adjectives such as outright, utter, chief and former occur in an
attributive position only.

Predicative adjectives can be

a) subject complement: The adjectives usually come after the
copula, or linking verbs ( be, seem, appear, become, look,
feel, etc.):
That man is rich. He is afraid.
I feel happy. Fish are alive.
b) object complement: The adjectives come after the object,
for example:
They find her attractive. She will get the car ready.
Adjectives like unwell, loath, and asleep are in only a predicative position.

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Adjectives can sometimes be postpositive. That is, they can follow the
item they modify. A postposed adjective can usually be regarded as a
reduced relative clause. Indefinite pronouns ending in -body, -one, -thing
can be modified only postpositively:
I want to try on something larger (which is larger).
Is there anything interesting (which is interesting ).
There is someone ready to go (who is ready ).

In several compounds the adjective is postposed, the most common being:

attorney general, court martial, heir apparent, president elect, Secretary
General.
Postposition is usual for a few adjectives and for absent, present, ablaze
and concerned, involved:
The house ablaze is next door to mine.
The people involved were not found.
The members present are very few.

Some adjectives can be used after nouns. This is common with adjectives
ending in -able, -ible: the tickets available, the only solution possible, the
only candidate suitable.
Adjectives usually follow measurement nouns: six meters high, ten miles
long, and six feet deep.
Some postposed adjectives, especially ending in -able, or -ible, retain the
basic meaning they have in attributive position but convey the implication
that what they are denoting has only a temporary application. Thus, the
stars visible refers to stars that are visible at a time specified or implied,
while the visible stars refers to a category of stars that can (at appropriate
times) be seen (Quirk and Greenbaum, 128).

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 Adjectives in English can often function as heads in noun phrases. They
take a definite determiner, for example the old, the young, the rich, the
wise. These adjectives have generic and plural references. It is possible to
add a general word for human beings such as 'people'.
Some adjectives can function as noun-phrase heads when they have
abstract references. They take singular concord, and they include
superlatives:
The best is yet to come.
He ventured into the unknown.
We bought the cheapest.
Most adjectives are gradable. They can be modified by adverbs which
convey the degree of intensity of adjective. Gradability includes
comparison:
tall taller tallest
beautiful more beautiful most beautiful
and other forms of intensification :
very young so plain extremely cold
very simple quite short

All dynamic adjectives (for example, careless, good, noisy, rude, funny,
etc.) are gradable. Most static adjectives {tall, old) are gradable; some are
non-gradable, especially 'technical adjectives' like atomic and
hydrochloric (Quirk and Greenbaum, 2008: 136).
Adverbs can act as pre-modifiers and post-modifiers of the adjectives
(Leech, et al., 1994: 76). The adverbs which act as the pre-modifiers are
the adverbs of degree, for example too heavy, rather difficult, extremely
hot. Some adverbs can be repeated, for example very very tall. The
adverbs which act as the post-modifiers are: very good indeed, clever
enough.

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2.2 Adjectival Phrases in Thai

From the preceding sections, it is apparent that attributive adjectives in

English always precede the nouns. In contrast, adjectives in Thai always
follow the head noun which they modify, for example /khon yai/ 'man
big' (H+M). Adjectives in Thai are similar to their English equivalents.
They can appear in the comparative and superlative constructions. They
can also be modified by intensifiers. Details of these will be provided in
subsequent sections.

In illustrating the examples of the adjectival phrases, the format is

similar to that used in describing the noun phrases. The first line represents
a Thai transcription. The second line gives a literal translation. The third
line is an English translation. The head nouns in Thai are in bold face; the
adjectives are in italics and other modifiers are placed in slanted lines.
There are a great number of adjectives in Thai as in English, The
adjectives which are listed below are common ones in Thai,

/yai/ 'big' /lek/ 'small'

/nao/ 'cold' /rawn/ 'hot'

/aroy/ 'tasty' /phet/ spicy

/suay/ 'beautiful' /law/ 'handsome'

/phaeng / 'expensive' /thuek/ 'cheap'

/supha;p/ 'polite' /klom/ 'round'

/khom/ 'bitter' /wha:n/ 'sweet'

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/kao/ 'old' /mai/ 'new'

/cha:/ 'slow' /rew/ 'fast, quick'

/nak/ 'heavy' /bao/ 'light'

/yao/ 'long' /san/ 'short'

/ngai/ 'easy' /yak/ 'difficult'

/baen/ 'flat' /rawang/ 'careful'

/su:ng/ 'high, tall' /tia/ 'short'

/dam/ 'black' /khao/ 'white'

/ya:p/ 'rough, rude' /la-iad/ 'delicate'

/antarai/ 'dangerous' /plodphai/ 'safe'

/sombu:n/ 'complete' /phit/ 'wrong'

/thu:k/ 'right' /di:/ 'good'

/chua/ 'bad' /n^'a:/ 'thick'

/bang/ 'thin' /cha-la:d/ 'clever'

/ngo/ 'foolish' /ruay/ 'rich'

/jon/ 'poor' /^on/ 'soft'

/khaeng/ 'hard'

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Adjectives in general have two functions:
1) as modifier in a noun phrase, for example a rich man
2) as head of an adjective phrase, for example very rich
Based on these two functions, the present study first describes the first
function, that is, the adjective as a modifier in a noun phrase. The second
one will be dealt with later.

The adjectival phrase as one of the main elements in the syntactic structure
in Thai has the following constituents (Panupong,1979: 70-76):
1. When the adjectives in Thai modify the head noun, they always
follow the nouns; on the contrary the adjectives in English which are
attributives normally precede the nouns which are modified, (N+ADJ).
Nouns are required in demonstrating the adjectival phrases to make the
sense complete. For example:

H M (Adj)
khon di:
man good
'a good man'

dek uan
child fat
'a fat child'

hong yai
room large
'a large room'

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 nalika: lek
clock small
'a small clock'

m^a: du
dog fierce
'a fierce dog'

khon phawm
man thin
'a thin man'

ja:n yai
plate big
'a big plate'

a:ha:n aroy
food tasty
a tasty food'

si: dam
color black
'a black color'

nangsue na:
book thick
'a thick book'

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2. The adjectives modify the head noun. A classifier is placed between
the adjective and the head noun. In Thai, when a classifier is used, the
phrase becomes more specific. The classifier has been already
explained in detail in chapter one; it requires no English translation ,
for example:
H CLS M(Adj)
ma: / tua/ yai
dog CLS big
'the big dog' ( a specific dog with a large body)

ban /lang/ yai

house CLS big
'the big house' ( a specific house')

ma: yai
dog big
'a big dog' (any dog with a large body)

ban yai
house big
'a big house' (any house which is big)

The first pair in which the article 'the' is used indicates that the words
which are referred to are more specific than the second pair. Other
examples of the adjectival phrases with classifiers are the following:

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 H CLS M(adj)
cha:m /bai/ yai
plate CLS big
'the big ]plate'

toh /tua/ lek

table CLS small
'the small table'

rom /khan/ mai

umbrella CLS new
'the new umbrella ?

dinsaw /taeng/ yao

pencil CLS long
'the long pencil'

3. The adjectives modify the head noun. They are followed by a

classifier and a demonstrative that comes last while a demonstrative in
English precedes the phrase.
H Adj CLS Demon
rot si.dam /khan nan/
car black CLS that
'that black car'

maew si.khao /tua ni/

cat white CLS this
'this white cat'

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 tuek sueng /lang nan/
building tall CLS that
'that tall building'

nangsue na: /lem ni/

book thick CLS that
'this thick book'

4. English and Thai can have two adjectives to modify the head
noun. The difference is that two or more adjectives in English are
usually put in a more or less fixed order. For example, the word which
describes comes before the word which classifies: an old (description)
political (classification) idea. The word which expresses opinions, and
attitudes come before the word that describes, for example: a beautiful
(opinion) oW (description) house (Swan, 2006: 11). On the contrary,
two adjectives in Thai do not have a fixed order.

H Adj Adj
maew dam yai
cat black big
'a big black cat'

krapao yai nak

bag big heavy
'a big heavy baj j '

It is also grammatical acceptable to have the word order as in the next

two examples:

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 maew yai dam
cat big black
'a big black cat'

krapao nak yai

bag heavy big
'a big heavy bag'

Two adjectives in Thai can be followed by a classifier and a

demonstrative. For example:

H Adj Adj CLS Demon

dokmai suay sod /dok ni/
flower beautiful fi-esh CLS this
'this fresh beautiful flower'

rom si.khao mai /khan ni/

umbrella white new CLS this
'this new, white umbrella'

tuek yai si.daeng I lang nan/

building big red CLS that
'that red big building'

5. The Thai adjectives post-modify the head noun and are followed by a
numeral and a classifier while the English adjectives pre-modify the
head nouns:

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 H Adj CardNu CLS
maew uan /song tua/
cat fat two CLS
'two fat cats'

som suk /sip bai/

orange ripe ten CLS
'ten ripe oranges'

hong lek /hok hong/

room small six CLS
'six small rooms'

6. The adjectives modify the head nouns. They are followed by only
the classifier:
H M(adj) CLS

som suk /bai/

orange ripe CLS
'a ripe orange'

suea mat /tua/

shirt new CLS
'anew shirt'

khai yai / phong/

egg big CLS
'a big egg'

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7. The adjectives post- modify the head nouns. The adjectives and the
numeral are put between the two auto-classifiers that are used two
times:
H CLS Adj CardNu CLS
nangsue /lem/ n^'a: /song lem/
book CLS thick two CLS
'the two thick books'

dokmai /dok/ yai /s"i: dok/

flower CLS big four CLS
'four beautiful flowers'

ja:n /bai/ mai /song bai/

plate CLS new two CLS
'two new plates'

rongtao /khu/ mai /song khu/

shoe CLS new two CLS
'two new pairs of shoes'

8. The construction is similar to the previous one. The only difference

is that it features the demonstrative which comes last:

H CLS Adj CardNu CLS Demon

rot /khan/ si:daeng /song khan ni/
car CLS red two CLS this
'these two red cars'

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 muak /bai/ kao /sip bai nan/
hat CLS old ten CLS that
'those ten old hats'

trakra /bai/ yai /yisib bai nan/

basket CLS big twenty CLS that
'those twenty big baskets'

nalika: /mean/ suay /ha mean non/

clock CLS beautiful five CLS those
'those five beautifiil clocks'

It is apparent that in English the modifiers appear before adjectives

while in Thai the modifiers come after adjectives. Adjectives in English
can be pre-modified by noun phrases with cardinal numerals, for
example:
English: He is six feet tall.
The room is ten meters wide.
The words, 'six feet' and 'ten meters' are the modifiers of the
adjectives 'tall' and 'wide' respectively. In Thai, the phrases in
question come after the adjectives:
H M
/su:ng h'a foot/
tall five foot
'five feet tall'

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Thai adjectives can be post-modified by adverbs while their English
counterparts are pre-modified :
H M
/di: yangying/
good very/really
'really good'

Adjectives in Thai and English are similarly post-modified by a

prepositional phrases:
H M
/ya:k samrap khao/
difficult for he
'difficult for him'

The examples demonstrated clearly show that adjectives in English

and Thai go in different directions: English modification goes to the left
hand while Thai equivalent goes to the right hand. As a result, Thai
learners of English make common mistakes relating to adjectives
thanks to different modifications of the phrases.
Predicative adjectives in English come after the linking verbs such as
seem, appear, become, get, and turn. The adjective ^beautifuV in the
sentence 'she is beautiful' is predicative. Similarly, adjectives in
Thai may be used as the predicate in a sentence. However, such
predicate adjectives are considered intransitive verbs. This is because
they do not require a linking verb as in English. Predicate adjectives are
described in chapter five.

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For example:
ban mai
house new
'the house is new.'

rao hiew
we hungry
'we get/become hungry.'

As a linking verb is not necessary in Thai, it is highly likely to find that

Thai learners are bound to speak or write the sentences like 'we
happy.' 'She hungry.' "The man rich.'
Thai adjectives have the post-modification whose order is not rigidly
fixed. The classifier which plays a crucial role in Thai can occur before
and after the adjectives. The attributive adjectives in English have the
pre-modification. When two or more adjectives are present, their order
is more or less fixed.
English has some words, for example direct, fast, hard, late, long,
wrong which can be used as adjectives and adverbs:

As Adjective preceding nouns

He is 2ifast driver.
John is a hard worker.
The mountain is very high to climb.

As Adverbs modifying verbs

They drive very fast.
She works hard this year.
Don't aim too high.

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Likewise, Thai has some adjectives which can be used as the adverbs of
manner (Iwasaki, 2005: 92-93), for example, the word /di:/ 'good'
which is an adjective in -
khon di:
man good 'a good man'
becomes an adverb in
/tham di:l
do good 'to do well'.

Other words which can be used in a similar manner include /rew/ 'fast,
quick', /supha:p/ 'polite',/sa-a:t/'clean'. For example:

As an adjective
rot rew
car fast
' a fast car'

khon supha.p
man polite
'a polite man'

As an Adverb

rot wing rew

car run fast
'a car runs fast.'

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 khao phu:t supha.p
he speak polite
'he speaks politely.'

2.3 Comparative Adjectives

Adjectives in English and Thai can have a comparative construction.

David Crystal has briefly explained how the adjectives in English can
be compared in one of three ways (2004:136):

1) If we compare them to a lower degree, we use less or least: This

chair is less heavy (than that chair).
2) If we compare them to the same degree, we use a construction
with as ... as: This chair is as big as that.
3. If we compare them to a higher degree, there are two possible
methods. If the word has one syllable, we add an ending \.er or
..est':
This chair is bigger than that.
If the word has three syllables, we use the words 'more' or 'most':
She is more beautiful than you.
She is the most beautiful.

There are some adjectives with irregular comparatives and superlatives,

e.g. good — better - best; bad - worse - worst; much - more - most.
Comparison applies only to adjectives that are gradable. Adjectives that
are not gradable such as atomic, previous, inherent, former, and mere
cannot be compared or modified by an intensifier like 'very'.

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 Adjectival phrases in Thai have a different way of constructing a
comparison. Thai adjectives do not have comparative or superlative forms
in a morphological sense. Thai is not inflected or is added by -er or - est,
more or most as in English. The comparative form can be created by
adding a prepositional phrase which comprises the preposition /khwaa/
'than' after the adjective and it is followed by a noun being compared.

duangaithit yai khwaa duangchan

sun big than moon
'the sun is bigger than the moon'

khao chala.d khwaa phuean

he intelligent than friend
'he is more intelligent than his friends'

In a superlative construction, English has the markers - est added to the

adjective, or most added before the adjective, for example 'He is the
tallest.' Thai does not have the comparison markers as in English. It has
the word /thisut/ ' - est, or most' (shortened as SPR) which is used after
the adjectives being compared, for example:

Adj SPR
sat yai thisut
animal big SPR
'the biggest animal'

nok lek thisut

bird small SPR
'the smallest bird'

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 dek chala:d thisut
child intelligent SPR
'the most intelligent child'
The comparative construction of the ... the .. . in English is used to say
that things change or vary together.
The word order
The + comparative expression + subject + verb
The more dangerous it is, the more I like it.
The more we study, the more we learn.
The more money he makes, the more things he buys.

Thai has a comparison corresponding to this type of construction. The

words /ying . . . , ying . . ./ is used for the comparative expression before
the adjectives which are in italics:

ying rew ying dii

more fast more good
'the faster, the better'

ying phaeng ying haayaak

more expensive more scarce
'the more expensive, the more scarce'

ying phom ying suay

more thin more beautiful
'the thinner, the more beautiful'

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As Thai does not have comparative markers, inflections are problematic
the learners whose mother tongue is an isolating language which requires
no inflection. There are other words for comparison. They are /thaokan/
'equal', /muean/ 'to be the same' /thao kap/ 'as as'.
When things on the same degree are compared in Thai, the word /thao
kan/ 'equal' is used after an adjective predicate.
/nangsue n'a: thao kan/
Book thick equal
'Books are equally thick.'
Other comparative words in Thai include /muean/ 'to be the same', 'to
resemble', /thao kap/ 'as as'.

/khao su:ng muean khun/

he tall same you
'He is tall the same as you.'

/khao su:ng thaokap phaw/

he tall asas father
'He is as tall as his father,'

2.4 Intensifiers of Adjectives

Adjectives which function as the heads of adjectival phrases are pre-

modified by intensifiers. In grammar, an intensifier is a word that has a
heightening effect, for example very in very good or a lowering effect,
for example slightly in ^/Zg/zf/jy^r on the meaning of the word which is
modified. Words that can be modified in this way are gradable.

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 Intensifying adverbs modify gradable adjectives, for example extremely
foolish, very green, slightly green, somewhat green, really horrible (Quirk
and Greenbaum, 2008 : 226).
With respect to the intensifier. Thai is significantly similar to English as
adjectives in Thai can be intensified. The only difference is that the
intensifier comes after the head. The common lexical intensifiers in Thai
are /ma:k/ 'very', /nak/ 'really', /lueakem/ 'extremely', /nadu:/
'extremely, really', /thi:diew/ 'very, quite', /jang/ 'quite', /nitnoi/
'slightly', /jing/ 'truly', /awk/ 'really, extremely', /chiaw/ 'veiy, quite'
(Iwasaki, 2005: 100):
H(adj) M
rawn lueakern
hot extreme
'extremely hot'

san nak
short quite
'quite short'

naklua ma:k
horrible really
'really horrible'

ya:k nitnoi
difficult slightly
'slightly difficult'

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 suay n'^adu:
beautiful really
'really beautiful'

Furthermore, intensification in Thai can be made by emphatic

reduplication. For example:

a:ha:n phet phet

food hot hot
'very hot food'

si: suay suay

color beautiful beautiful
'really beautiful color'

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