10. The adjective. The category of degrees of comparison

The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of a substance. It means that each adjective used in the text presupposes relation to some noun the property of whose referent it denotes, such as its material, colour, dimensions, position, state, and other characteristics both permanent and temporary.

The following features are commonly considered to be characteristic of adjectives.

1. Meaning:

a) generalized lexico-grammatical primary meaning of non-temporal property, e.g.: black, big, clever, etc.;

b) generalized grammatical secondary meaning of non-temporal property, e.g.: comfortable, national, graceful, etc.

2. Combinability with:

a) nouns, mostly in postposition, e.g.: He was a pleasant fellow (T. Mori);

b) verbs in preposition, e.g.:

/ married young (M. Burgess);

c) adverbs of degree in preposition, e.g.:

...he was a deeply emotional man (S. Sheldon);

d) prepositional combinations in postposition, e.g.: It is full of clean paver (W. Deeping).

3.Syntactic Functions:

a) attributive,

b) predicative.

In attributive function, the adjective is part of a noun phrase: it generally precedes and modifies the head noun, e.g.:

She had a small child in her arms (W.S. Maugham).

Predicative adjectives characterize a noun phrase that is a separate clause element. Predicative adjectives have two syntactic roles: subject predicatives and object predicatives. Subject predicatives complement a copular verb, characterizing the noun phrase in subject position, e.g.:

She was wonderful to me (D. Robins).

Object predicatives follow a direct object, making a predication about that noun phrase, e.g.:

He made the children happy (R. Quirk et al.).

4.Morphological structure.

As far as their morphological structure is concerned, adjectives fall under the following types:

a) simple,

b) derived,

c) compound.

Simple adjectives have neither prefixes nor suffixes, e.g.: green, high, low, fat, etc.

Derived adjectives have either a prefix or a suffix or both. Derived adjectives are usually formed from nouns and verbs. The most productive adjective-forming suffix is -al, e.g.: international, local, natural, formal, usual, etc.

Compound adjectives are made from a combination of more than one word and represent compact, integrated forms of expression, which are not easy to produce 'online' except for lexicalized components, such as tongue-tied, old-fashioned, etc.

Classes of Adjectives

According to their meaning and grammatical characteristics, adjectives can be classified into qualitative and relative. Qualitative adjectives denote qualities of a substance directly, e.g.: small, brown, quick, etc. Most qualitative adjectives have degrees of comparison, e.g.: small - smaller - smallest.

Degrees of Comparison

Linguistic Status of the Category of Degrees of Comparison

The problem of degrees of comparison has given rise to much controversy. First of all, there is no unity of opinion concerning the character of this category in Modern English. Some linguists think that degrees of comparison should be treated as a lexical category. In their opinion, long - longer - longest represent three different words, not forms of one and the same word.

Criticizing this point of view, А.1. Smirnitsky says that long-longer - longest are not different words, but forms of the same word because they have the same stem long and are consequently characterized by identical lexical meaning.

The category is constituted by the opposition of the three forms known under the heading of degrees of comparison; the basic form (positive degree), having no features of comparison; the comparative degree form, having the feature of restricted superiority (which limits the comparison to two elements only); the superlative degree form, having the feature of unrestricted superiority.

Synthetical and analytical forms

The synthetical forms of comparison in -er and -(e)st coexist with the analytical forms of comparison effected by the auxiliaries more and most. The analytical forms of comparison perform a double function. On the one hand, they are used with the evaluative adjectives that, due to their phonemic structure (two-syllable words with the stress on the first syllable ending in other grapho-phonemic complexes than -er, -y, -le, -ow or words of more than two-syllable composition) cannot normally take the synthetical forms of comparison. In this respect, the analytical comparison forms are in categorial complementary distribution with the synthetical comparison forms. On the other hand, the analytical forms of comparison, as different from the synthetical forms, are used to express emphasis, thus complementing the synthetical forms in the sphere of this important stylistic connotation. Cf.: The audience became more and more noisy, and soon the speaker's words were drowned in the general hum of voices.

Besides the already mentioned synthetic and analytical forms of degrees of comparison, there are irregular forms. A few adjectives have suppletive forms of comparison that are derived from different roots, e.g.: good - better - best, bad-worse - worst.

Substantivization of Adjectives

Adjectives can be substantivized, i.e. become nouns. When adjectives are converted into nouns, they no longer indicate properties of substances, but come to express substances possessing these properties. (the wise, the cold)

Adjectivization of Nouns

Such constructions as stone wall, peace talks

*(доп-но)Statives (Ilyish-was 1^st to mention them) – alive, awake –some problems: morphologically, statives seem to stand apart from adjectives, for they have a specific prefix a- and lack the grammatical category of degrees of comparison. On the one hand, there are a lot of adjectives that stand outside the grammatical category of degrees of comparison. On the other hand, some of the so-called statives form degrees of comparison just like most qualitative adjectives, e.g.:

The two main meals of the day, lunch and dinner, are both more or less alike (Lingaphone English Course).

As for the prefix a-, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English regards it as an adjective-forming prefix.