Adjectivals

Adjectivals consist of any grammatical structure that can ll the same function as an adjective in a sentencethat is, modify a noun. Adjectivals can occur with any of the following structures:

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Determiners, including articles, possessive nouns, Adjectives, both pre-noun and post-noun. Nouns Prepositional Phrases Participle Phrases

sive form of any word is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s to the word, unless the word was already plural and ended in s. In the last case, you form the possessive by simply adding an apostrophe: Bonnies mother lives in Uniontown. At doggie day care, I could see the dogs toys scattered throughout the exercise yard. If adding an apostrophe and s to a singular form results in the sequence ss, it is permissible to drop the nal s. Check out the Apostrophe Protection Society at www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk. Sentence 4 uses one of the demonstrative pronouns. They can be classied as well: Singular Plural Near to the speaker (literally or guratively) Far from the speaker this that these those

possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and numbers.

Relative clauses, both restrictive and nonrestrictive

The rst three types of adjectivals occur before the noun, so they are sometimes called the prenoun modiers. The last three occur after the noun, so they may be called the postnoun modiers. The noun that is being modied is sometimes called the headword. It is important to determine which word is actually the headword of the subject of the sentence to avoid subject-verb agreement problems: *The pack of dogs were traveling throughout the city. *The new, improved instructions on the immigration form was not as clear as it should have been. These sentences are nonstandard because verb agrees with the object of the preposition modifying the headword, instead of the headword itself. Here are the correct forms: The pack of dogs was traveling throughout the city. The new, improved instructions on the immigration form were not as clear as they should have been.

Sentence 5 uses a number as the determiner. In addition to number, the determiner could be a word or phrase that indicates quantity: some, a few, lots, a lot of, many, no, and so forth. Prenoun adjectives are the most familiar kind. English has some expressions in which the adjective follows the noun: attorney general court martial These words are unusual. To form the plural of these words, you just put the s (or other plural form) on the headword: attorneys general courts martial Adjectives in the usual position before the noun are usually very easy to recognize. However, it is possible for some of the words before the headword to modify one of the other words before the headword, instead of the headword itself, as in the following sentence: My brothers dog was a husky. In this case, the possessive pronoun my modies the possessive pronoun. You diagram the relationship shown by the arrows above like this: dog was husky
a

Determiners consist of words before the noun that specify

which entity the noun refers to. Here are some examples. 1. A dog can be an excellent friend. 2. The dog most likely evolved from the wolf. 3. My dog is named Bonnie. 4. That dog is not my dog. 5. Two dogs can often keep each other company. The subjects in Sentences 1 and 2 are preceded by articles; Sentence 1 uses the indenite article; Sentence 2 uses the denite article. Sentence 3 uses the rst person singular possessive pronoun. You will recognize the others very quickly. Singular First Person Second Person Third Person my your her/his/its Plural our your their

This same principle applies to adverbs, called intensiers, that modify adjectives. The most common intensiers include words like the following: very, extremely, really, quite, incredibly, unbelievably We encountered an extremely large, black dog.
We encountered dog

r s the bro y M

ck bla e ely g m larxtre e an

Any possessive word is also a kind of determiner. The posses-

www.class.uidaho.edu/engl201 You often have to pay close attention to how all the words before the noun are related to each other. Our former neighbors dog was afraid of another one of our previous dogs. dog was afraid

Adjectivals - Page 2

Participle phrases can work as adjectivals. These

The snoring dog kept me awake all night. dog kept me awake night
all
n ori sn e Th
g

phrases can be formed around the present or the past participle.

of

one

Sometimes, we use a phrase before the noun as if it were a single adjective. In these cases, we use hyphens: two-word verbs well-known woman fast-moving train 75-pound dog

thirteen-year-old German shepherd start-of-the-semester party

When the same words that make up a hyphenated adjective are used after the noun (later in the sentence), they are not hyphenated: Were having a party at the start of the semester. The country of Cameroon is French speaking. Adverbs that end in -ly are not hypenated: carefully developed plan fully realized opportunity

Two-word adjectives are diagrammed as if they are single words: My 13-year-old German shepherd weighed about 65 pounds.
Note: The verb weigh, like the verb cost, creates a special sentence pattern pounds that is a kind of exception to the 10-pattern view of sentences. These verbs are part-way between a transitive an intransitive verb. It is as if they take an object, but the object functions more like an adverbial than an object. It is best to diagram them as a Type VI sentence as I have done here. In this sentence, I also split apart the phrase German shepherd, which is simply an alternative way to think about the noun German shepherd.

shepherd

Nouns can also function as adjectivals. Here is an example:

Bonnie ran through her dog door. The word dog is a noun, but in the above sentence, it is being used as an adjective to refer to a special door for dogs. Heres another example: Charlies experience and agility put her in the catbird seat.
From The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Catbird seat. A situation of advantage or superiority, as in His promotion put Charles in the catbird seat. This term is thought to allude to that noisy birds habitual high perch. It was popularized in the 1940s by sportscaster Red Barber.

Nouns used as adjectivals are diagrammed just as if they were ordinary adjectives.

s r or me hb o r ig f ne u r O

dogs
s iou ev pr r ou

French-speaking country

of

I soon discovered the puppy rooting around in the garbage. I discovered puppy
ro the

Patrolling the back yard early in the morning, Bonnie was startled by a big gray cat gazing at her with malevolent yellow eyes. Bonnie was startled cat
by

so on

oting

garbage
the

in nd u aro

tr Pa

olling yard
ck ba the in rly ea

y gra big a

z i ng

ga

morning
the

her

th wi

Attacked from behind, Bonnie was surprised to discover Charlie leaping on her from above. Bonnie was surprised

at

eyes

w t llo en ye evol l ma

t At

a cked

discover Charlie

to

weighed

behind

ping
m f ro
on
her

lea

m fr o

above

ab

an rm old Ge ear-y 13 y M

t ou

Exhausted by her evening of intense play, Bonnie fell asleep immediately. Note: In this sentence, I Bonnie fell asleep

65

u sted
by

evening play

have diagrammed fell asleep as a two-word verb, rather than with asleep being thought of as a sort of adverb. (Question: How did she fall? Answer: Asleep. Hmm, I dont think thats quite right.)

y tel dia me im

In writing participles, it is important to realize that the participle generally modies the nearest noun phrase. When you write a sentence that starts with a participle, it is important to realize that the doer of the action of that verbthe agent of the verb should be the subject of the sentence. Consider this sentence, for example: *Running down the street, my nose felt very cold. The odd result (the nose running down the street) is caused by the fact that agent of the verb running is missing from the sentence. That agentIshould be the subject of the sentence.

ha Ex

of r he

se en int

www.class.uidaho.edu/engl201 This brings us to the last of the types of adjectivalsrelative clauses, which are a new structure. In a way, though, we have been already considering sentences that contain a sort of relative clause. Consider these two sentences: Exhausted by her evening of intense play, Bonnie fell asleep immediately. Bonnie, who was exhausted by her evening of intense play, fell asleep immediately. A participle phrase is a kind of reduced relative clause; we could call them an elliptical relative clause, meaning that they are like a relative clause, except that a few words are missing. The missing word is the is relative pronoun, which begins most relative clauses. You are already familiar with these words: who which that whose whom In addition, relative clauses can be introduced by the relative adverbs, which are as follows: when where why In informal speech and writing, when the relative pronoun would be that, it is possible for the relative pronoun to be omitted (The car I bought yesterday is a Chevy). In each case, what distinguishes a relative clause from other kinds of clauses is that the relative pronoun replaces one other grammatical element in the clause. As a result, relative clauses are always incomplete sentences if you take away the relative pronoun. They are also always adjectival, never adverbial. Bonnie, who will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday, has grown considerably. Sophie used to ride in the back seat of my old car, which was a 1973 Dodge Coronet. The dog that hated cats was Grice. Grice, whose name was unusual, was the favorite dog of many people. H.P. Grice, after whom our dog was named, was a British language philosopher. Thanksgiving, when the entire family gathered in one place to eat yummy food, was an exciting time for our dogs. The house where we lived at that time was not big enough for a family with two large dogs. Sophie could not understand the reason why I left the house each day. In each case, the relative clause can be viewed as a structure that is formed from another sentence that is then put intoor embeddedinto the rst sentence: Bonnie has grown considerably. who Bonnie will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday.

Adjectivals - Page 3 Relative clauses can appear complicated when the relative pronoun replaces some element in the second sentence (the embedded clause) besides the subject: Grice was the favorite dog of many people. whose Grices name was unusual. Grice, whose name was unusual, was the favorite dog of many people H.P. Grice was a British language philosopher. whom Our dog was named after him. H.P. Grice, after whom our dog was named, was a British language philosopher. To diagram these sentences, it is necessary to unpack the relative clausegure out what sentence the relative clause came from. You can usually do this by guring out what word in the underlying sentence the relative pronoun stands for. In the rst example above, the relative pronoun whose substitutes for the possessive Grices. In the second example, the relative pronoun whom substitutes for the word him. (Hint: the pronoun whom always stands for a pronoun like him, them, or her. All but one of these pronouns ends in m.) If there is a preposition in front of the pronoun such as him, that preposition can move to the front of the clause, along with the relative pronoun, but it doesnt have to. The following sentence is also correct (although some would say a bit awkward): H.P. Grice, whom our dog was named after, was a British language philosopher. Relative clauses are diagrammed a bit like dependent clauses. The main difference is that you insert the relative pronoun or relative adverb into the sentence in the place where the grammatical element that the relative pronoun has replaced would normally go: Bonnie, who will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday, has grown considerably. Bonnie has grown
n co b era sid

who

will be

old weeks

ly

Sophie used to ride in the back seat of my old car, which was a 1973 Dodge Coronet. Sophie used to ride seat
Note: I have diagrammed the verb as used to ride, an idiom that means was accustomed to riding.

on
Note: I broke up the phrase Dodge Coronet, but it would be OK to consider this as just the name of this kind of car.

e elv tw

Tuesday

in

car

old my of k bac the

which

was

Coronet

dg e Do 3 197 a

www.class.uidaho.edu/engl201 The dog that hated cats was Grice. dog was Grice

Adjectivals - Page 4

Punctuation of Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are sometimes set off by commas, depending on whether the information in the relative clause is considered necessary to the meaning of the sentence. In the following sentence, the relative clause identies the dog we are talking about: The dog that hated cats was Grice. There are no commas around the relative clause because it is restrictivethat is, it restricts the meaning of the word dog in this sentence. All relative clauses that start with that are restrictive and should never have commas placed around them. Another way to tell that commas should not be used is the way you read the sentence out loud (especially if you read it with feeling). Usually, you have a tendency to drop your voice a little when you come to a relative clauses that is not restrictive, as in this sentence: Grice, whose name was unusual, was the favorite dog of many people. In this sentence we are trying to say two things about Grice: (1) he was the favorite dog of many people and (2) his name was unusual. Usually, the information in the relative clause is not as important as the information in the main clauseits just extra information. A clause that simply gives extra information to the sentence like this (they do not further identify the meaning of the noun phrase) is nonrestrictive. Nonrestrictive relative clauses are always set off from the rest of the sentence with commas. Another way to tell that commas are required is if the noun phrase that is the subject of the sentence is a proper name. (Sophie, Grice, Bonnie, or even Thanksgiving are all proper names; proper names are always capitalized). In such a case, you can usually assume that the noun phrase has already been restricted as much as it can be (thats what the proper name did) and that the relative clause that follows is extra information that is not necessary to the meaning of the sentence. People often use restrictive relative clauses in ordinary conversation, as in this sentence: Could you hand me that thing thats over there? Nonrestrictive relative clauses are much less common in the speech of most people. Sometimes, it is obvious that the relative clause is necessary to the meaning of the sentence: Taxicabs that are not clean enough are illegal in some cities. In these cases taking out the relative clause make it clear that the relative clause is necessary to the meaning of the sentence: Taxicabs are illegal in some cities. Usually, though, it is not quite so obvious that the relative clause restricts the meaning of the headword: The house where we lived at the time was not big enough for a family with two dogs. Even though the sentence makes sense without the relative clause, it is possible to see how the relative clause identies which house is being referred to.

Grice, whose name was unusual, was the favorite dog of many people. Note: Grice was dog
people
of rite o fav the

name was unusual

e Th
that hated cats
The relative pronoun whose is placed in the sentence where the word that it replaced would go. In this case the word was his.

ny ma

H.P. Grice, after whom our dog was named, was a British language philosopher. philosopher was H.P. Grice

our dog was

Notice that the word him could substitute for the word whom in this sentence.

Thanksgiving, when the entire family gathered in one place to eat yummy food, was an exciting time for our dogs. family gathered In this sentence, I place eat food have diagrammed
to

the relative clause above the main clause. Above or belowboth ways are correct.

The house where we lived at that time was not big enough for a family with two large dogs.
we
house was big

os e wh

named
af t
whom

The verb was named is actually in the passive voice, but it can be diagrmmed as a Type IV sentence.

e ag gu lan h itis Br a

Thanksgiving

er

i en t the

in n e wh

on

yu

re

e
time

y mm

was

dogs

for ing cit ex an

r ou

lived time

family

dogs

Again, the relative clause has been diagrammed above the main clause. Note, too, the prepositional phrase that functions adjectivally (for a family) with another prepositional phrase modifying the word family.

at ere wh

t tha

t no
I left
wh y

Th
e

Sophie could not understand the reason why I left the house each day.

h wit a for gh u eno

g lar o tw

Sophie

could understand
t no
house day

reason
the

the

h eac