Issues to discuss:

1. Lexical and grammatical meaning; semantic and structural classification.

2. Grammatical category of adjectives.

3. Syntactic functions of adjectives.

Terminology:

Demonstrative, distributive, quantitative, interrogative, qualitative; grading; substantivation.

1. Lexical and grammatical meaning; semantic and structural classification

A traditional definition of an adjective is that it says what somebody or something is like. Modern grammar prefers to define adjectives by position, form, inflection and function. In other words, many adjectives denote qualities; they often have a sort of descriptive meaning.

The main kinds of adjectives are:

• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those.

• Distributive: each, every, either, neither.

• Quantitative: some, any, no; little/few, many/much.

• Interrogative: which, what, whose.

• Of quality: bright, clever, tiresome, old, heavy, poor.

The adjective as a part of speech is characterized in English and Ukrainian by its common implicit lexical and grammatical nature and common functions in a sentence. It expresses the quality of things or substances (a nice flower, urgent security measures) and can serve as a predicative complement after the linking verbs (copula-verbs/ зв’язка): The child was small; She grew nervous; Дитя було маленьке; Вона стала нервовою.

According to their typological characteristics, adjectives split into some isomorphic and allomorphic classes.

Typological Classes of English vs. Ukrainian Adjectives

Isomorphic	Classes of	Adjectives		Allomorphic Class
Qualitative Якісні	Relative Відносні	Possessive and Relative Присвійно-відносні	Suppletive Суплетивні	Possessive Присвійні (Only in Ukrainian)
Cold, big, small, red, green, high, yellow; холодний, великий, малий, червоний, вартий, жовтий	Golden, wooden, English, steel, swimming; золотий, дерев’яний, англійський, святковий, вечірній, осінній	Byronian, Shakespearian, Shevchenkinian, Lermontovian; Шекспірівський, Тичинівський, Малишківський, Лермонтовський, Дніпровський	Good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; Гарний, кращий, найкращий, поганий, гірший, найгірший	Мамин/ материн, Батьків/ татів, сестрин, братів/братова/братові (книги), котиків, вовків (хвіст), лисиччина (хатка), сомові (вуса), соловейкові (співи/ гніздечка)

a) Qualitative adjectives denotes property (or quality) pertaining to an object itself or being discovered in it. These properties can have various degrees of intensity because qualitative adjectives in both contrasted languages undergo grading. White – whiter, beautiful – more beautiful, solid – more solid, stubborn – less stubborn.

Most of the qualitative adjectives indicate properties and qualities which can be percept by our senses (colour, space, time, physical characteristics, qualifying intellectual properties, etc.).

b) Whereas relative adjectives express qualities characterizing objects and phenomena through their relation to other objects and phenomena (they are motivated by words presented by other parts of speech indicating material, possessiveness, destination, purpose, function). They don’t undergo grading: economic progress, private property, urban population, економічний розвиток, приватна власність, міське населення.

Relative adjectives fall into two subgroups:

1. Possessive and relative which are formed in English from nouns denoting family names or names of countries by adding suffixes – ic, -ian ( Aesopian, Shakespearian, Tolstovian);

2. Genuinely relative adjectives which have some inherent possessive meaning (Cuban, Brazilian, Portuguese, western, eastern) or: Kyiv parks, London docks, Taras Shevchenko Prize winners.

Note that many English relative adjectives are also regular root words, i.e. base adjectives: gold ring, the Iron Curtain, Boston harbour, York cathedral, Paris papers.

Ukrainian possessive and relative adjectives are formed by adding the suffixes -евк-/ -івськ- / -цьк, –зьк- to the noun stem: батьківський, учнівський, шевченківський, вояцький, козацький, запорізький, or only by adding the suffixes –ин/-ін, -ач/-яч to the root: журавлиний, качиний, зміїний, солов’їний, гусячий, жаб’ячий, телячий, волячий.

Pertaining only to Ukrainian (and some other Slavonic languages), however, are possessive adjectives, which are formed from common and proper noun denoting living beings by adding to their roots / stems the suffixes -ів/-їв, -ин/-ін, -ов-а, -ов-е, -ач/-яч: батьків, Сергіїв, сестрин, Маріїн, лікарів, водіїв, командирів, лисячий, комарів, цвіркунів, жабин.

Their corresponding forms in English are genitive case of nouns: father’s, Nick’s, lion’s (hunger), her brother-in-law’s (book), frog’s (leg), my sister’s (dress), fox’s (tail).

As to the structure of adjectives they may fall in English and Ukrainian into three far from equal by their number groups:

1. Base (simple) adjectives, which are regular root words (big, bold, clean, high, old, red, thin, wet, young, small, tall). Such base adjectives are few though structurally stems in Ukrainian (винен, годен/згоден, давен, дивен, зелен, певен, ладен). Regular base adjectives, like those in English, are rare a few in Ukrainian: рад, варт, жив (і здоров).

2. Derivative adjectives which are in English regular stems: boyish, capable, despotic, grammatical, tedious, rural, urban, English, Germanic, beautiful. Derivative adjectives in English are formed with the help of the following suffixes: -al/-ial (annual, bacterial), -able/-ible (capable, sensible); -ary/-ory (contrary, advisory); -an/-ian (urban, Ukrainian); -ant/-ent (defiant, divergent); -ern (eastern); -ful (tactful, useful); -ic/-ical (basic, political); -ish (bookish, womanish); -ive (active, conclusive); -less (careless, hopeless); -ous (tedious, poisonous); -ow (narrow, yellow); -ward (westward, backward); -y (milky, tidy). The Ukrainian language has many derivative adjectives. They are formed with the help of the suffixes: товариський, паризький, вузький, козацький, гречаний, кропив’яний, березовий, грушевий, доїльний, поїльний, величезний, добрячий, багатющий, синюватий, білястий, дрібнесенький, гарнесенький.

3. Compound adjectives unlike base and derivative ones are characterized in the contrasted languages by some structural and lexical allomorphisms. Thus, they may not correlate semantically. English compound adjective breast-high can have in Ukrainian only a phrase equivalent занурений до грудей/ що дістає до грудей; ice-cold – холодний, як лід. The English Compound adjective upright corresponds to the Ukrainian simple derivative adjective чесний, прямий, вертикальний, which are structurally non-equivalent. Also there exist many equivalent compound adjectives like four-storied, all-nation, all-steel, many-sided, which have corresponding semantic and structural equivalents чотириповерховий, загальнонародний, суцільно сталевий, всемогутній, багатосторонній.

Absolutely allomorphic (for English) is the formation of Ukrainian adjectives with the help of diminutive and augmentative suffixes.

Absolute isomorphism is observed in the existence of derivative prefixal and suffixal adjectives in Ukrainian and English: abnormal/ subnormal, anti-national, archbishopric, counteractive, ultra-leftist, indisputable (анормальний, антинародний, архієпископський, протидіючий, ультра лівацький, незаперечний, безперечний).

Very productive in Ukrainian are prepositional by origin prefixes, that partially correspond to English adverbial prepositions: above-mentioned, overgrown, etc. (бездумний, настільний, підгірний, передсвятковий.

Of allomorphic nature are compound adjectives consisting of initial adjectival, adverbial, etc. component and concluding verbal, substantive root/ stem. These adjectives in Ukrainian have always their endings for gender, case and number, whereas in English they are mostly marked by the participial –ing or –ed endings: Black-manned – чорногривий, black-hearted – злий, дурний,easy-going – добродушний,well-known – добре-відомий,silk-like - шовковичний.

Agreement

Unlike Ukrainian, adjectives in English have the same form for singular and plural, masculine and feminine nouns:

A colour picture кольорова картина / colour pictures – кольорові картини; a good boy –гарний хлопчик/girl дівчина, good girsl – гарні дівчата/boys - хлопці.