Note that the adjective in an adjective phrase may be modified by an adverb.

When it is modified
by an adverb, the adverb goes before the adjective. The adjective may also be modified by other
determiners like articles, possessives and demonstratives.

Most adjectives can readily occupy both pronominal and predicate adjective position, although
there are exceptions. The adjective that can occupy object complement position are severely
limited by the semantics of complex transitive verbs, and postnominal adjectives are also highly
constrained.

On rare occasions a lexical adjective follows a noun in the noun phrase. Adjectives in this
position are called postnominal. While adjectives seldom follow full nouns, they often follow
indefinite pronouns of any sort.

Note that many of these intensifiers are closely related semantically to intensifying adjectives,
and a number of them can be formed by simply adding [-ly] to the appropriate adjective.

Some adjective modifiers are downtoners. Intensifiers and downtoners arent really distict
categories; they constitute a semantic continuum and as one shades into the other, it is sometimes
hard to assign a semantic label.

Words like only, as in an only child, and utter, as in an utter fool, are also adjective phrases.
However they are limited in their distribution: unlike the vast majority of adjective phrases, they
can not occur after the Copula be in a sentence: *the child is only* or *the fool is utter* These
AdjPs , it appears, can only be used attributively, not predicatively. Other AdJPs such as awake
or alone, can only be used attributively.

The head of the AdjP is the adjective nice, and this head is modified by a degree adverb so; the
adverb quickly expands into into a phrase and is modified by the degree adverb very that does not
form a phrase of its own.

A phrase is a group of words forming a unit and united around a head, e.g. a noun or a verb.
Since phrases are syntactic units, a number of rules apply to them.
The five criteria confirm that to the store is a phrase. We know that it is a prepositional phrase
because a Preposition, namely to, is the head. All phrases can be pronominalized and
coordinated. However, not all phrases can be deleted. The initial noun phrase is very important,
and in English, sentences are ungrammatical without it. Thus changing produces an
ungrammatical sentence: Ran to the store.

A semantic trait of adjectives is that they describe, modify, limit, distinguish, or otherwise
characterize the noun they refer to. Adjectives take a larger category-the noun-and the limit it to
a percentage of things within what the noun covers. An example is the phrase green apples: The
larger category-apples-is made smaller by the adjective green, so that now only green apples
(and not red, yellow, or golden appes) are being reffered to. In English, attributive adjectives-
those appearing in the same phrase as the nouns they modify-typically go before those nouns.

There are two positions where an English adjective may appear: within the same noun phrase as
the noun it modifies whether coming before or after it (the attributive position) or not within the
noun phrase whose noun it modifies but, instead, right after the clauses verb ( the predicate
positon). Here are some examples: -before the modified noun (the pronominal attributive
position) and -after the modified noun (postnominal attributive position).

We can not tell whether a word is an adjective by looking at it in isolation, because the form of a
word does not necessarily indicate its syntactic function. Some suffixes are indeed found only,
or typically, with adjectives.

Nor can we identify a word as an adjective merely from its potentialities for inflection. It is true
that many adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative.

Many adjectives provide the base form which adverbs are derived by means of an ly suffix.

Four criteria for adjectives-They can freely occur in predicative function, ie they can function as
subject complement or as subject complement.
In several institutionalized expressions (mostly in official designatins), the adjective is
postpositive.

However, if the noun phrase I generic and indefinite, coordinated adjectives, or adjectives with
some clause element added, can be postposed, though such constructions are formal and rather
infrequent. Like relative clauses, postposed adjectives may be restrictive or nonrestrictive.

An adjective modified by enough, too, or so can be separated from its complementation if the
modified adjective is placed before the indefinite (or zero) article of the noun phrase.

Exceptionally, certain short prepositional phrases may also premodify an adjective in attributive
position.

The innocent-Adjectives which can premodify personal nouns can be noun-phrase heads with
plural and generic reference denoting classes, categories, or typesof people. The adjective can
itself be premodified or postmodified.

Notice that these adjectives are restricted to generic reference and take plural concord.

Some adjectives denoting nationalities can be noun-phrase heads. The adjectives in question are
virtually restricted to words ending in (i)sh and ch.

Postmodifying prepositional phrases and relative clauses can be either restrictive or

nonrestrictive. Some adjectives can function as noun-phrase heads with abstract reference.

Attributive only-In general, adjectives that are restricted to attributive position, or that occur
predominantly in attributive position, do not characterize the referent of the noun directly. For ex
old can either a central adjective or an adjective restricted to attributive position. In that old man
(the opposite of that young man), old is a central adjective, and can thus also be predicative:
That man is old. On the other hand, in the usual sense of an old friend of mine [a friend of old, a
long-standing friend], old is restricted to attributive position and cant be related to My friend is
old. In this case, old is the opposite of new [recently acquired]. The person reffered to is not
being identified as old: it is his friendship that is old. Outside such well-established phrases as
old friend, new friend , the contrast old/new requires the adjective to be stressed: Ill take my
old car tonight. Similarly, the attributive adjective in the wrong candidate doesnt refer to the
wrongness of the person but to the mistake in identifying the person as a candidate. Adjectives
that characterize the referent of the noun directly (that old man, My friend is old) are termed
INHERENT, those that dont (an old friend of mine) are termed NONINHERENT.

Restrictive adjectives-Restrictive adjectives restrict the reference of the noun exclusively,

particularly, or chiefly.

Other adjectives related to adverbs-Some noninherent adjectives that are attributive only can be
related to adverbs but dont always fall within the intensifying or restrictive types f adjectives.

The adverbial nature of these adjectives can be seen in their correspondences with a verb of
general meaning and an adverb.

Adjectives related to nouns-Some adjectives are derived from nouns by means of suffixes.

Stative/dynamic Adjectives are characteristically stative. Many adjectives however, however,

can be seen as dynamic. In particular, most adjectives that are susceptible to subjective
measurement are capable of being dynamic. Stative and dynamic adjectives differ syntactically
in a number of ways. For example, a stative adjective such as tall cant be used with the
progressive aspect or with the imperative.

Inherent/Noninherent-Most adjectives are inherent, that is to say, they characterize the referent of
the noun directly. For ex, the inherent adjective in a wooden cross applies to the referent of the
object directly: a wooden cross is also a wooden object. On the other hand, in a wooden actor the
adjective is noninherent: a wooden actor is not (presumably) a wooden man.
Attributive adjectives modify nominal expressions, preceding the head noun or pronoun. In most
cases, they modify common nouns. Attributive adjectives can also modify proper place nouns.
Although no adjective is frequent in this role, the adjectives poor, lucky, and silly are somewhat
more common modifying personal pronouns than other adjectives. Adjectives are used to
describe or give information about things, ideas, and people: nouns and pronouns.

Determining adjectives, Limiting adjectives, Classifying adjectives, Restrictive adjectives,

Inherent/Noninherent, Downtoners. .

There are five categories of adjectives and these adjectives dont provide exact numbers; rather
they tells us the amount of the noun in relative or whole terms.