Автор: Оксана Макарова, 10 Октября 2010 в 16:55, реферат
Реферат по теоретической грамматике английского языка для студентов иностранных отделений и факультетов.
In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Some examples can be seen in the box to the right. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that also used to be considered adjectives.
Not all languages have adjectives, but most, including English, do. (English adjectives include big, old, and tired, among many others.) Those that do not, typically use words of another part of speech, often verbs, to serve the same semantic function; for example, such a language might have a verb that means "to be big", and would use a construction analogous to "big-being house" to express what English expresses as "big house". Even in languages that do have adjectives, one language's adjective might not be another's; for example, while English uses "to be hungry" (hungry being an adjective), French uses "avoir faim" (literally "to have hunger"), and where Hebrew uses the adjective "זקוק" (zaqūq, roughly "in need of"), English uses the verb "to need".
In most languages with adjectives, they form an open class of words; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation.
It's one of those incredibly involved stories.
The people involved are all doctors.
I'm worried about the present situation.
Of the 18 people present, I knew only one.
Her parents were trying to act in a responsible manner.
We do not know the person responsible for his death.
Order of Adjectives.
1. When we use two or more adjectives in front of a noun, we usually put an
adjective that expresses our opinion in front of an adjective that just
describes something.
He is a naughty little boy.
She was wearing a beautiful pink suit.
2. When we use more than one adjective to express our opinion, an adjective
with a more general meaning such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘nice’, or ‘lovely’
usually comes before an adjective with a more specific meaning such as
‘comfortable’, ‘clean’, or ‘dirty’.
He put on a nice clean shirt.
It was a horrible dirty room.
3. We can use adjectives to describe various qualities of people or things.
For example, we might want to indicate their size, their shape, or the
country they come from.
4. We usually put comparative and superlative adjectives in front of other
adjectives.
These are the highest monthly figures on record.
5. When we use a noun in front of another noun, we never put adjectives
between them. We put any adjectives in front of the first noun.
He receives a large weekly cash payment.
6. When we use two adjectives as the complement of a link verb, we use a
conjunction such as ‘and’ to link them. With three or more adjectives, we
link the last two with a conjunction, and put commas after the others.
The room was large but square.
The house was old, damp and smelly.
We felt hot, tired and thirsty.
Adjectives with prepositions.
1. When we use an adjective after a link verb, we can often use the
adjective on its own or followed by a prepositional phrase.
He was afraid of his enemies.
2. Some adjectives cannot be used alone after a link verb. If they are
followed by a prepositional phrase, it must have a particular preposition:
He is unaccustomed to the heat.
3. Some adjectives can be used alone, or followed by a particular
preposition.
used alone, or with ‘of ’ to specify the cause of a feeling
I was terrified of her.
4. Some adjectives can be used alone, or used with different prepositions.
She was rude to him for no reason.
Adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive or ‘that’-clauses
1. After link verbs, we often use adjectives that describe how someone
feels about an action or situation. With some adjectives, we can add a
‘to’-infinitive clause or a ‘that’-clause to say what the action or
situation is.
He was happy that they were coming to the party.
2. We often use ‘sorry’ with a ‘that’-clause. Note that ‘that’ is often
omitted.
I'm sorry I'm so late.
3. Some adjectives are not usually used alone, but have a ‘to’-infinitive
clause after them to say what action or situation the adjective relates to.
They were not likely to forget it.
I am willing to try.
I'm prepared to say I was wrong.
4. When we want to express an opinion about someone or something, we often
use an adjective followed by a ‘to’-infinitive clause.
The windows will be almost impossible to open.
Am I wrong to stay here?
5. With some adjectives, we use a ‘that’-clause to express an opinion about
someone or something.
. It is extraordinary that we should ever have met!
6. We can also use adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive clauses after ‘it’ as
the impersonal subject. We use the preposition ‘of ’ or ‘for’ to indicate
the person or thing that the adjective relates to.
It was good of John to help me.
It was difficult for her to find a job.
Adjectives ending in ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’
We use many ‘-ing’ adjectives to describe the effect that something has on
our feelings, or on the feelings of people in general. For example, if we
talk about 'a surprising number', we mean that the number surprises us.
She always has a warm welcoming smile.
We use some ‘-ing’ adjectives to describe something that continues over a
period of time.
Increasing prices are making food very expensive.
Many ‘-ed’ adjectives describe people's feelings. They have the same form
as the past participle of a transitive verb and have a passive meaning. For
example, ‘a frightened person’ is a person who has been frightened by
something.
A bored student complained to his teacher.
She had big blue frightened eyes.
4. Like other adjectives, ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ adjectives can be:
used in front of a noun
This is the most terrifying tale ever written.
I was thanked by the satisfied customer.
The worried authorities cancelled the match.
used after link verbs
It's amazing what they can do.
The present situation is terrifying.
He felt satisfied with all the work he had done.
My husband was worried.
5. A small number of ‘-ed‘ adjectives are normally only used after link
verbs such as ‘be‘, ‘become‘, or ‘feel‘. They are related to transitive
verbs, and are often followed by a prepositional phrase, a ‘to‘-infinitive
clause, or a ‘that‘-clause.
He was always prepared to account for his actions.
She was scared that they would find her.
Conclusion
It should be noted that the meaning of unrestricted superiority is in- built in the superlative degree as such, though in practice this form is used in collocations imposing certain restrictions on the effected comparison; thus, the form in question may be used to signify restricted superiority, namely, in cases where a limited number of referents are compared. Cf.: Johnny was the strongest boy in the company.
Some linguists approach the number of the degrees of comparison as problematic on the grounds that the basic form of the adjective does not express any comparison by itself and therefore should be excluded from the category. This exclusion would reduce the category to two members only, i.e. the comparative and superlative degrees.
However, the oppositional interpretation of grammatical categories underlying our considerations does not admit of such an exclusion; on the contrary, the non-expression of superiority by the basic form is understood in the oppositional presentation of comparison as a pre-requisite for the expression of the category as such. In this expression of the category the basic form is the unmarked member, not distinguished by any comparison suffix or comparison auxiliary, while the superiority forms (i.e. the comparative and superlative) are the marked members, distinguished by the comparison suffixes or comparison auxiliaries.
On the other hand, due to the tendency of colloquial speech to contrastive variation, such extreme qualifiers can sometimes be modified by intensifying elements. Thus, "the final decision" becomes "a very final decision"; "the ultimate rejection" turns into "rather an ultimate rejection"; "the crucial role" is made into "quite a crucial role", etc.
As a result of this kind of
modification, the highest grade evaluative force of these words is not
strengthened, but, on the contrary, weakened; the outwardly extreme
qualifiers become degraded extreme qualifiers, even in this status similar
to the regular categorial superlatives degraded in their elative use.
List
1. Dixon, R. M. W. (1977). Where have all the adjectives gone? Studies in Language, 1, 19–80.
2. Dixon, R. M. W.; R. E. Asher (Editor) (1993). The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (1st ed.). Pergamon Press Inc. pp. 29–35. ISBN 0080359434.