Adjectives

Adjectives: forms

Adjectives describe properties, qualities or states attributed to a noun or a pronoun.

Adjectives cannot necessarily be identified by their form. However, some suffixes are associated with
adjective formation, and many adjectives can be seen to be derived from nouns and verbs:

suffix adj related to nouns suffix adj related to verbs

-al Accidental, professional -able Drinkable,
understandable
-ful Beautiful, useful -ive Attractive, explosive
-ic Heroic, optimistic
-ish Foolish, boyish
-less Hopeless, harmless
-ly Brotherly, friendly
-ous Virtuous, courteous
-y Sandy, watery

Adjectives may also be derived from other adjectives through the use of suffixes or prefixes:

greenish

shortish

impossible

irresponsible

unfortunate

A group of adjectives with the prefix a- are derived from verbs:

afloat

asleep

awash

ablaze

awake

Adjectives: gradability

Adjectives are either gradable or non-gradable. Gradable adjectives can be seen as existing along a
scale.For example, it is possible to say that something is a bit dangerous or extremely dangerous.
Dangerous is a gradable adjectives. Most adjectives are gradable. Gradable adjectives tend to have an
antonym (opposite), for example, hot-cold, strong-weak.

Non-gradable adjectives cannot be modified on a scale. A person is either married or not, dead or not
and one cannot be very married. Non-gradable adjectives classify and categorise things.
An inflectional property of gradable adjectives is that they can occur in a comparative or superlative
form. Some common everyday adjectives add –er or –est to form the comparative and superlative:

Larger, largest

Sillier, silliest

Fast, fastest

Other adjectives require more or most (less and least) to convey the same gradable contrasts:

The more difficult task, the least difficult task

The most interesting person

The more expensive of the two

A few gradable adjectives change form completely (e.g. good, better, the best)

Adjective phrases

Forms

An adjective phrase can consist of a single adjectives or an adjectives which is modified or

complemented.

Adjectives are typically modified by adverb phrases (in bold)

That’s really interesting.

He’s a very tall man.

That’s not good enough.

Occasionally, modification may be by a noun phrase (in bold)

She’s only seven years old.

His farm is 300 acres bigger than his brother’s.

Adjectives can be followed by complements, most commonly in the form of a prepositional phrase or
also by a that-clause. Different adjectives require different complementation petterns:

Lucy is proud of you.

Lucy is good with children.

Lucy is keen on golf.

Lucy is sure that she saw someone.

Attributive and predicative

Two main syntactic functions of adjectives phrases are attributive and predicative.
 An adjectives phrase is attributive when it modifies a noun or pronoun:

The tall, grey buildings

An interesting idea

Poor you!

A court material

An adjective phrase is predicative when it occurs in the part of the sentence which says what the
subject is, does or experiences (the predicate) :

The teacher was ill.

That’s very good.

Most adjectives can be used in either way, but some adjectives have only attributive or only predicative
function.

Adverbs

Adverbs are a class of words which perform a wide range of functions. Adverbs are especially
important for indicating the time, manner, place, degree and frequency of an event, action or process.

Adjectives and adverbs are frequently based on the same word. Most adverbs have the form of their
related adjective plus –ly ending:

She’s a beautiful girl. (adjective)

She sings beautifully. (adverb)

Others suffixes which denote adverbs are –ward (s) and –wise. (clockwise, edgewise)

A number of adverbs have the same form as adjectives (e.g. hard, outside, right, well). A number of
adverbs (e.g. just, quite, so, soon, very, too) are to adjectives at all.

Some adverbs may inflect for comparative and superlative forms:

Soon – sooner – soonest

Hard – harder – hardest

Little – less – least

Far – farther/further – farthest/furthest

Adverbs phrase

Forms

An adverb acting as the head of an adverb phrase may be modified by another adverb and/or followed
by a complement:

It all happened rather suddenly.

 Funnily enough I didn’t notice it.

Most surprisingly for her, she decided to emigrate to Australia.

Complement patterns of some adverbs may be the same as the complement patterns of their related
adjectives:

It was unfortunate for us that we got there too late. (adjective)

Unfortunately for me, they’d closed early that day (adverb)

Adverb phrases occur as the complement of be, typically indicating location:

Is the dog upstairs?

Your glasses are there, on the table.

Adverb phrases frequently occur as modifiers of verbs:

She works really slowly.

I swim regularly.

Adverb phrase frequently modify adjectives and other adverbs:

It was extremely could out there.

They did the test very competently.

Adverb phrases can also modify noun phrases (including pronouns) and prepositional phrases:

That was quite a match. (adverb + noun phrase)

Didn’t he manage to speak with nearly everyone there? (adverb + pronoun)

We followed the path right to the end. (adverb + prepositional phrase)

Adverb phrase may also modify determiners, especially quantifiers:

Almost all of those books are useless.

There’s very little chance of that happening.

Hardly any of his colleagues believes him.

Functions

As well as giving information on the time, place, manner and degree of an action, event or process,
adverb phrases can also have a commenting function, indicating the attitude and point of view of the
speaker or writer towards a whole sentence or utterance. In such cases they are referred to as sentence
adverbs:

Actually, it’s nearly midnight.

Officially, I can’t tell you the results but I’ll find a way.
 Adverb phrases can often indicate a relationship between two clauses or sentences (e.g. one of cause
and effect, one of concession, one of temporal sequence). In such cases they are called linking adverbs:

Although in principle agriculture ought to be a net producer of energy, converting the sun’s energy into
the calorific value of food, modern agriculture is actually a net consumer. We are consequently eating
up our energy resources.

Philip got the sack and then we heard Liam was sacked too.

Adverb phrases can occupy a range of positions at the front, in the middle and at the end of a clause.

Prepositions

Prepositions are a closed word class. New prepositions cannot easily be formed.

Prepositions express a relation in time between two events or a relation in space between two (or
more) things or people. They can also express a variety of other, abstract relations:

They left after six o’clock.

During the film she fell asleep.

They decided to meet in a park.

He dealt with the problem.

The most common prepositions are: about, after, as, at, by, during, for, from, in, of, off, on, to, with.
Most prepositions consist of a single word but some prepositions may be considered as consisting of
more than a single word (e.g. in front of, outside of, out of, next of).

Some of these words may also be used as adverbs (e.g. in by, off, out, over):

We were just touring around, stopping off here and there.

She’s not here. She’s out.

Prepositions are almost always followed by a prepositional complement. Usually, the complement is a
noun phrase but it can be a whole clause:

The doctor gave her a lot of information about the tablets. (noun phrase)

I’ll take her to where they last met. (clause)

A particularly common prepositional complement is the nominal –ing form of a verb. Prepositions may
not be followed by other forms of a verb:

He was jailed for murdering his close friend and flatmate.

By talking to all the witnesses, the police eventually managed to reduce the number of suspects.

An adjective or an adverb may something act as complement to a preposition:

In short

By far
 Until now

At first

Before long
Prepositional may be modified by a small set of adverbs (e.g. right, straight):

We went right down the coast.

Will you go straight to your sister’s house or stop on the way?

Some verbs require propositional complements, and are termed prepositional verbs. The verb
determiners what preposition must follow. Different verbs require different prepositions. Examples are
confide in, cope with, depend on, look after.

You should learn to confide in your friends.

They will have to look after their father.

Prepositional phrases

Prepositions act as the head of a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is formed when a
preposition combines with a complement. Prepositional phrases can function as a postmodifier or
complement of a noun, as an adjunct in the clause and as a complement of a verb or adjective:

We saw a girl with a small dog. (noun phrase postmodifier: a girl with a small dog = a girl who had a
small dog; additional information about the girl, but not necessary to complete the meaning of ‘girl’)

We saw the outline of a man against the window. (noun phrase complement: outline needs a
complement to complete its meaning – an outline must be an outline of something)

He writes well on the whole (adjunct, modifying the clause)

I’ll deal with that. (complement of a verb)

I must admit I felt very sorry for her. (complement of an adjective)

Conjunctions

Conjunctions express a variety of logical relations between phrases, clauses and sentences.
Conjunctions can be divided into coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

A coordinating conjunction is used to link elements of equal grammatical status. A coordinating

conjunction can link elements of any size, from morphemes to sentences. The main coordinating
conjunctions are and or but:

He collects pre- and post-war cameras. (linking prefixes)

There are two or three houses nearby. (linking words)

The wind was really cold and absolutely biting. (linking phrase)

You can join now or you may prefer to wait and discuss things with your partner. (linking clauses)
 Correlative conjunctions consist of two items, each of which is attached to an element to be
coordinated. The most common correlatives are either… or…, neither…nor…, both… and…:

The class can meet / either on Friday at 9/ or on Thursday afternoon at 4.30/.

Subordinating conjunctions only relate clauses to one another. They make the clause they introduce a
subordinate clause (one which is dependent on a main clause). Common subordinating conjunctions
are: after, although, as, before, if, since, until, when, while. Some subordinating conjunctions consist of
more than one word: as long as, as soon as, except that, in order to, in order that, provided that:

They had to cancel their holidays in Brazil because Anne’s mother was seriously ill.

In order to reach the village, walkers need to be prepared for a steep climb.

Some subordinating conjunctions may be modified by adverbs:

Just when I arrived, I got a phone call.

Ever since I heard about it, I’ve been afraid to go out after dark.