Universidade Católica de Moçambique

Instituto de Educação à Distância

Topic: Grammar aspects – Adjectives in English

Name: Duarte António

Student Code: 708230355

Course: Portuguese Language

Teaching course
Subject: English language
Year: 1st
Class: B

Beira, September 2023

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 Universidade Católica de Moçambique
Instituto de Educação à Distância

Topic: Grammar aspects – Adjectives in English

Name: Duarte António

Student Code: 708230355

Trabalho de campo a ser Submetido na

Coordenação do Curso de Licenciatura
em Ensino da língua portuguesa da
UCM

Tutor: dr. Lúcio Mucaisse

Beira, September 2023

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 Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1

Adjectives ....................................................................................................................................... 2

Uses of Adjectives ...................................................................................................................... 2

Degrees of Adjectives................................................................................................................. 3

Classification of adjectives ........................................................................................................ 5

Descriptive ............................................................................................................................... 5

Quantitative ............................................................................................................................. 5

Demonstrative.......................................................................................................................... 6

Possessive ................................................................................................................................ 6

Interrogative ............................................................................................................................ 6

Distributive .............................................................................................................................. 7

Forming Adjectives from Nouns .............................................................................................. 7

Other relevant aspects ................................................................................................................... 8

Coordinate adjectives .................................................................................................................. 8

General Sufixes ............................................................................................................................ 8

Spelling Rules .............................................................................................................................. 9

What exactly is the comparative degree formula? ............................................................. 9

What is the positive degree rule? ....................................................................................... 10

What exactly is the degree of comparison concept? ......................................................... 10

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 11

References..................................................................................................................................... 12

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Introduction

The contributions in the present wild work deal with a variety of issues in the analysis of the
syntax and semantics of adjectives. Compared to the lexical categories of nouns and verbs,
adjectives have received attention in the linguistic literature. In the present introduction I will
give an overview of some of the central issues in the study of adjectives and put the issues
addressed by the papers in this into this wider context.

The first section reviews the criteria that have been proposed to distinguish adjectives as a word
class and discusses some cross-linguistic variation observed with respect these criteria.

The second section sketches some issues in the semantics of adjectives. The third section gives a
summary of the main issues in the syntax of adjectives and of the syntactic analyses proposed for
the attributive and predicative uses of adjectives.

The aim of this wild work is to learn about adjectives.

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Adjectives
An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be used to
describe the qualities of someone or something independently or in comparison to something
else. They can be attributive (occurring before the noun) or predicative (occurring after the noun).
Predicative adjectives typically follow a linking verb (such as forms of the verb “to be”) that
connects the subject of the sentence to the adjective.

Examples:

1. I am an intelligent boy

2. The soldier is proud.

3. My classmate is very dedicated.

Uses of Adjectives

Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a prepositive

basis. A corresponding noun also follows the postpositive basis. In the English language, the uses
of adjectives generally can be classified into three categories:

Prepositive adjectives– They occur before they exist within a noun phrase. They also go by the
term “attributive adjectives”.

For example: Dad put his happy kids in the car.

Postpositive adjectives- They can occur right after they come next to a noun within a noun
phrase.

For example, Dad took a short drive around with his happy kids.

Nominalized adjectives– They are usually functional as nouns. When one person deletes a noun
from an adjective-noun noun phrase will result in the adjective working as a noun.

For example: Mom read two books to them, she preferred the sad book, but he preferred the
happy.

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Degrees of Adjectives

There are three degrees of adjectives include positive, comparative and superlative—the degrees
of comparison work for only descriptive adjectives. Adjectives are employed or reused to
characterize, quantify, change, or identify nouns/pronouns. Degrees of adjectives or degrees of
comparison that compare one thing/person to another exist for adjectives.

Positive adjectives– They are used to just describe a person or thing. The comparison does not
take place as it is a normal adjective degree. Or, in another way, positive adjectives are words
that are used to describe something in a positive light. These words can emphasize how good a
certain something is. Rather than simply expressing a bland meaning, a positive adjective can
bring a more detailed and dramatic meaning to something.

Examples:

1. Duarte is affable person who makes friends easily.

2. Felicidade Gulumbe is an ambitious young woman who wants to become an university

teacher.

3. My wife showed a brave face even in the most difficult of situation

Comparative adjective– When there is a comparison done between two things, it is a comparative
adjective. Comparative adjectives are used to compare two things. They’re usually formed by
adding the suffix “-er” (or “-r” if the word ends in the letter “e”). For two-syllable words that end
in “y,” the “y” is replaced with “-ier.”Comparative adjectives can also be formed by adding
“more” or “less” before an adjective that has not been modified. The “more” form is typically
used for words with two or more syllables, while the “less” form is used for all adjectives.

Examples:

1. Duarte’s essay is longer than Maciel’s.

2. I have never met a more honorable person.

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Superlative adjective– The adjective that is used to make a comparison between three or more
things is a superlative adjective. They are also used to state something that is the most. It is often
necessary not only to name objects but also to mention some accompanying characteristic o r
descriptive detail that w il serve more nearly to indicate the object. Thus we may say He bought
an apple; but we may wish also to say more about the apple, and so may add further details.

Examples:

1. UCM is the highest university in Mozambique

2. It was the happiest day of my life

3. That is the best film I have seen this year.

Superlative adjectives are used to indicate that something has the most or least of a specific
quality. They’re typically preceded by the definite article “the” and usually formed by adding the
suffix “-est” (or “-st” if the word ends in the letter “e”). For two-syllable words that end in “y,”
the “y” is replaced with “-iest.” Superlative adjectives can also be formed by adding “most” or
“least” before an adjective that has not been modified. The “most” form is typically used for
words with two or more syllables, while the “least” form is used for all adjectives.

Examples:

1. Even the greatest athletes need adequate rest.

2. All the courses were delicious, but the dessert was the tastiest.

3. Alicia is the most charming person at the party, but her partner is the least charming.

Absolute adjectives

An absolute adjective is an adjective describing an absolute state that cannot be compared. For
example, the word “dead” is often considered to be an absolute adjective because it’s not possible
to be “deader” than someone else. However, actual usage varies, and absolute adjectives are often
modified by words such as “almost.”

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Examples:

1. This is the perfect example for this question

2. UCM is the unique university in Beira City.

3. The one who was injured is dead now.

Classification of adjectives

Adjectives can be classified into 7 categories: descriptive, quantitative, demonstrative,

possessive, interrogative, distributive, and articles.

Descriptive
When a person hears the word “adjective”, the first thing that will cross their mind is a
descriptive adjective. They are used to describe nouns and pronouns. Adjectives like nice,
beautiful, broken, etc., add the information and qualities to the words they are modifying.

Examples:

1. Duarte is a nice person

2. My wife is a beautiful woman

3. Don’t eat in that broken plate.

Quantitative
The adjectives that describe the quantity of something is known as quantitative adjectives.
Therefore, they answer the question of “how much?” or “how many?”. Numbers and other
general words like many, a lot and half are a few types of this adjective.

Examples:

1. In our class, we are 49 students

2. This is the 21st century

3. He ate a half of cake

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Demonstrative
When the noun or pronoun a person is referring to is described by “which”, they are
demonstrative adjectives. Words that they modify come before, including words like this, these,
that and those.

Examples:

1. These mangos are rotting

2. I cannot give you money at this moment.

3. This pen is smoother than that pen.

Possessive
These types of adjectives show possession by describing to whom things or person belongs in a
sentence. Most commonly used possessive adjectives include his, her, their, our, your and my.
Some of them can be used before a noun, and some can’t.

Examples:

1. My name is Duarte Antonio.

2. His brother lives in Marromeu district.

3. Our university is called UCM.

Interrogative
The meaning of interrogative adjectives is they ask questions, followed by a noun or pronoun in
every sentence to form a question. The interrogative adjectives include wh-words like what,
which and whose.

Examples:

1. Whose book was that?

2. Which team scored between Mozambique and Zimbabwe?

3. What recipe did you choose to make this dish?

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Distributive
While describing specific members out of a group, one person can make use of distributive
adjectives. These adjectives may be perfect by singling out one or more individual items or
people from a group. Common distributive adjectives used in a sentence will include every, each,
neither, either and any.

Examples:

1. Every students received the Tablets from UCM

2. Any person can make a donation

3. The teacher gave each student a question about Covid – 19.

Forming Adjectives from Nouns

In the following, we can see the different methods to form adjectives from nouns, including the
suffixes, the inherent meaning of the suffix, the nouns and their transformation into adjectives.

Nouns Adjectives

Norm Normal

Music Musical

Industry Industrial

Class Classical

Economy Economic/economical

Romance Romantic

Hero Heroic

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Examples:

John loves going on adventures. John’s a very adventurous person.

You’re behaving like a child! Don’t be so childish!

The creature had a body like a worm. THe creature had a wormlike body.

The list seemed to have no end. The list seemed endless.

Other relevant aspects

Coordinate adjectives

Coordinate adjectives are two or more adjectives that modify the same noun in a sentence.
Coordinate adjectives can be separated by commas or by the conjunction “and.”

Examples:

1. The plums were cool and delicious.

2. Ribeiro wrote a heartbreaking, inspiring novel.

General Sufixes
1. The suffix -ish changes nouns and adjectives into adjectives that mean ‘like something.’
Examples:
Childish means like a child

2. For material objects we can add -en to nouns to create adjectives that mean ‘made of.’
Examples:

A wooden chair is made of wood

3. When ‘-able’ is added as a suffix to a verb it creates adjectives that express ability.
Example:
Is the water drinkable? (Enquires whether we can drink the water)

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Spelling Rules
We don’t normally add or take away letters, we simply add the suffix to the end of the word.
However, there are some exceptions:
• We double the final consonant in words that have a short-stressed vowel before the final
consonant.
Example:
Sun (sunny)
• A -y at the end of a word changes to to -i.
Example:
Beauty (beautiful)

These were the rules of degree of comparison. Now let’s have a look at the various examples:

POSITIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

Big Bigger Biggest

Small Smaller Smallest

Good Better Best

Brief Briefer Briefest

Beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful

Busy Busier Busiest

What exactly is the comparative degree formula?

In general, the comparative degree is constructed by appending ‘-er’ to the end of the adjective,
followed by ‘than’. This is true for monosyllable adjectives. In the case of polysyllabic
adjectives, however, the adjectives remain the same and the word more is used before the
adjective.

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What is the positive degree rule?
When there is no comparison, an adjective is said to be in the positive sense. When an adjective
is employed to compare two nouns or pronouns, it is said to be in the comparative degree.

What exactly is the degree of comparison concept?

To summarize, the degree of comparison is a mechanism for comparing one object to another.
The phrase “positive degree” refers to a certain thing or person. The comparative degree contrasts
two items or individuals. When comparing more than two items or individuals, the superlative
degree is used.

10
Conclusion

In the present wild work I was talking about the adjectives and I concluded that adjective is a
word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be used to describe the
qualities of someone or something independently or in comparison to something else. Depending
on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a Prepositive basis.

A corresponding noun also follows the postpositive basis, I have explained also that there are
three degrees of adjectives include positive, comparative and superlative, the degrees of
comparison work for only descriptive adjectives. Adjectives are employed or reused to
characterize, quantify, change, or identify nouns/pronouns. Finally, Adjectives can be classified
into 7 categories: descriptive, quantitative, demonstrative, possessive, interrogative, distributive,
and articles.

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References

HEATH, JEFFREY. 1984. Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu. Canberra: Australian Institute

of Aboriginal Studies

Murphy R and Smalzer, W (2002) Basic Grammar in Use 2nd edition United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press

Svenonius, P. 1992. “The Extended Projection of N: Identifying the Head of the Noun Phrase”.
Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 49: 95-121.

Svenonius, P. 2008. “The position of adjectives and other phrasal modifiers in the
decevomposition of DP”. In Adjectives and adverbs, L. McNally & C. Kennedy (eds), 16-42.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

TOPPING, DONALD M. 1973. Chamorro reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press.

TUCKER, A. N. and MPAAYEI, J. T. O. 1955. A Maasai grammar with vocabulary. London:

Longmans, Green.

UCM - FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION; - (2006) Ano Propedeutico

English Course English Department.

UCM - FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION; - (2006) First Year English

Course English Department

WELMERS, WILLIAM E. 1973. African language structures. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press.

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