1. Adjectives and adverbs
Many languages, including English, distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and
pronouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Not all languages
have exactly this distinction and many languages, including English, have words that can
function as both. For example, in English fast is an adjective in "a fast car" (where it qualifies
the noun car), but an adverb in "he drove fast" (where it modifies the verb drove). In Dutch
and German, almost all adjectives are implicitly also adverbs, without any difference in form.
[edit] Determiners
Main article: Determiner (linguistics)
Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate
parts of speech (or lexical categories), but formerly determiners were considered to be
adjectives in some of their uses. In English dictionaries, which typically still do not treat
determiners as their own part of speech, determiners are often recognizable by being listed
both as adjectives and as pronouns. Determiners are words that are neither nouns nor
pronouns, yet reference a thing already in context. Determiners generally do this by indicating
definiteness (as in a vs. the), quantity (as in one vs. some vs. many), or another such property.
[edit] Types of use
A given occurrence of an adjective can generally be classified into one of four kinds of uses:
1. Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify; for
example, happy is an attributive adjective in "happy people". In some languages,
attributive adjectives precede their nouns; in others, they follow their nouns; and in yet
others, it depends on the adjective, or on the exact relationship of the adjective to the
noun. In English, attributive adjectives usually precede their nouns in simple phrases,
but often follow their nouns when the adjective is modified or qualified by a phrase
acting as an adverb. For example: "I saw three happy kids", and "I saw three kids
happy enough to jump up and down with glee." See also Postpositive adjective.
2. Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun
or pronoun they modify; for example, happy is a predicate adjective in "they are
happy" and in "that made me happy." (See also: Predicative expression, Subject
complement.)
3. Absolute adjectives do not belong to a larger construction (aside from a larger
adjective phrase), and typically modify either the subject of a sentence or whatever
noun or pronoun they are closest to; for example, happy is an absolute adjective in
"The boy, happy with his lollipop, did not look where he was going."
4. Nominal adjectives act almost as nouns. One way this can happen is if a noun is elided
and an attributive adjective is left behind. In the sentence, "I read two books to them;
he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy", happy is a nominal adjective,
short for "happy one" or "happy book". Another way this can happen is in phrases like
"out with the old, in with the new", where "the old" means, "that which is old" or "all
that is old", and similarly with "the new". In such cases, the adjective functions either
as a mass noun (as in the preceding example) or as a plural count noun, as in "The

2. meek shall inherit the Earth", where "the meek" means "those who are meek" or "all
who are meek".
[edit] Adjectival phrases
Main article: Adjectival phrase
An adjective acts as the head of an adjectival phrase. In the simplest case, an adjectival
phrase consists solely of the adjective; more complex adjectival phrases may contain one or
more adverbs modifying the adjective ("very strong"), or one or more complements (such as
"worth several dollars", "full of toys", or "eager to please"). In English, attributive adjectival
phrases that include complements typically follow their subject ("an evildoer devoid of
redeeming qualities").
[edit] Other noun modifiers
In many languages, including English, it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike
adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) are not
predicative; a beautiful park is beautiful, but a car park is not "car". In plain English, the
modifier often indicates origin ("Virginia reel"), purpose ("work clothes"), or semantic patient
("man eater"), however, it may generally indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also
common for adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in boyish, birdlike, behavioral, famous,
manly, angelic, and so on.
Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can act as noun modifiers. In
many languages, including English, participles are historically adjectives, and have retained
most of their original function as such. English examples of this include relieved (the past
participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in sentences such as "I am so relieved to see
you"), spoken (as in "the spoken word"), and going (the present participle of the verb go, used
as an adjective in sentences such as "Ten dollars per hour is the going rate").
Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in "a rebel without
a cause"), relative clauses (as in "the man who wasn't there"), other adjective clauses (as in
"the bookstore where he worked"), and infinitive phrases (as in "a cake to die for").
In relation, many nouns take complements such as content clauses (as in "the idea that I
would do that"); these are not commonly considered modifiers, however.
[edit] Adjective order
In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. In general, the
adjective order in English is:[3]
1. general opinion
2. specific opinion
3. size
4. shape
5. age
6. color

3. 7. origin (nationality)
8. material
So, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age ("little old",
not "old little"), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to color ("old white",
not "white old"). So, we would say "One (quantity) nice (opinion) little (size) old (age) white
(color) brick (material) house."
This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, like Spanish, it may
only be a default (unmarked) word order, with other orders being permissible.
Due partially to borrowings from French, English has some adjectives that follow the noun as
postmodifiers, called postpositive adjectives, such as time immemorial. Adjectives may even
change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in proper: They live in a
proper town (a real town, not a village) vs. They live in the town proper (in the town itself, not
in the suburbs). All adjectives can follow nouns in certain constructions, such as tell me
something new.
[edit] Comparison of adjectives
Main articles: Comparison (grammar) and Comparative
In many languages, adjectives can be compared. In English, for example, we can say that a
car is big, that it is bigger than another is, or that it is the biggest car of all. Not all adjectives
lend themselves to comparison, however; for example, the English adjective extinct is not
considered comparable, in that it does not make sense to describe one species as "more
extinct" than another. However, even most non-comparable English adjectives are still
sometimes compared; for example, one might say that a language about which nothing is
known is "more extinct" than a well-documented language with surviving literature but no
speakers. This is not a comparison of the degree of intensity of the adjective, but rather the
degree to which the object fits the adjective's definition.
Comparable adjectives are also known as "gradable" adjectives, because they tend to allow
grading adverbs such as very, rather, and so on.
Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared in this way, different approaches are
used. Indeed, even within English, two different approaches are used: the suffixes -er and -est,
and the words more and most. (In English, the general tendency is for shorter adjectives and
adjectives from Anglo-Saxon to use -er and -est, and for longer adjectives and adjectives from
French, Latin, Greek, and other languages to use more and most.) By either approach, English
adjectives therefore have positive forms (big), comparative forms (bigger), and superlative
forms (biggest). However, many other languages do not distinguish comparative from
superlative forms.
Adverb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

4. "Adverbs" redirects here. For the Daniel Handler novel, see Adverbs (novel).
Examples
I found the film
incredibly dull.
The meeting went
well and the
directors were
extremely happy
with the outcome.
Crabs are known
for walking
sideways.
Only members are
allowed to enter.
I often have eggs
for breakfast.
However, I shall
not eat fried eggs
again.
An adverb is a word that changes or qualifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, other adverb,
clause, sentence or any other word or phrase, except that it does not include the adjectives and
determiners that directly modify nouns. Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts
of speech, although the wide variety of the functions performed by words classed as adverbs
means that it is hard to treat them as a single uniform category.
Adverbs typically answer questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what
extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and is realized not just by single words
(i.e., adverbs) but by adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.