The Adjective
Adjective is a part of speech characterized by the following typical features: ● THE LEXICO-GRAMMATICAL MEANING OF ‘ATTRIBUTES (OF SUBSTANCES) ● THE MORPHOLOGICAL CATEGORY OF THE DEGREES OF COMPARISON ● THE CHARACTERISTIC COMBINABILITY WITH NOUNS (A BEAUTIFUL GIRL), LINK-VERBS (. . . IS CLEVER), ADVERBS, MOSTLY THOSE OF DEGREE (A VERY CLEVER BOY), THE SO -CALLED 'PROP WORD‘ (THE GREY ONE) ● THE STEM-BUILDING AFFIXES -FUL. LESS, -ISH, -OUS, -IVE, UN-, PRE-, IN● ITS FUNCTIONS OF AN ATTRIBUTE AND A PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENT
The category of the degrees of comparison of adjectives is the system of opposemes (long — longer — longest) showing quantitative distinctions of qualities There are following degrees of comparison §'positive' § (long, good, beautiful) 'comparative' (longer, better, more beautiful) §'superlative' (longest, best, most beautiful)
The comparative and superlative degrees may be built up with the help of suppletivity good — better — best bad — worse — worst The quantitative pronominal adjectives or adjective pronouns many, much and little form opposites of comparison in a similar way many — more — most much little — less — least
● More and -er are identical as to their meaning of "a higher degree". ● Together they cover all the adjectives having the degrees of comparison, yet those adjectives which have comparative opposites with the suffix -er have usually no parallel opposites with more, and vice versa: more beautiful ( beaulifuller is impossible) nicer (not more nice)
This is not the case with less: 1. Less and -er have different, even opposite meanings. 2. The distribution of -er and less is not complementary. One and the same lexical morpheme regularly attaches both less and -er: prettier — less pretty, safer — less safe
More and most are not only word-morphemes of comparison. They can also be notional words One of the meanings of most is "very, exceedingly“ The notional word more in the meaning "to a greater extent" can also be used to modify adjectives, as in It's more grey than brown (It is not the comparative opposite of grey)
With regard to the category of the degrees of comparison adjectives fall under two lexico-grammatical subclasses Comparables Non-comparables
Most qualitative adjectives build up opposemes of comparison, but some do not: Adjectives that in themselves express the highest degree of a quality. E. g. supreme, extreme, etc. Those having the suffix -ish which indicates the degree of a quality. E. g. reddish, whitish. Those denoting qualities which are not compatible with the idea of comparison. E. g. deaf, dead, lame, perpendicular.
Naturally, all the adjectives which have no comparative and superlative opposites are outside the category of comparison, but they are united by the oblique or lexicogrammatical meaning of the positive degree The comparative degree and the superlative-degree are both relative in meaning A. I. Smirnitsky thinks that there is good ground to speak of two forms of comparison only: the positive degree and the relative degree which exists in two varieties — the comparative degree and the superlative degree.
In all the Indo-European languages adjectives can be substantivized, i. e. converted into nouns When adjectives are converted into nouns they no longer indicate attributes of substances, but substances possessing these attributes: I felt it my duty to help the sick. Such partially substantivized adjectives as the rich, the young, etc. mostly have collective force.
Comparison of the basic features of English and Russian adjectives The lexico-grammatical meanings are essentially the same. The Russian adjective has a greater variety of stem-building affixes than its English counterpart. The so-called "suffixes of subjective appraisal" (as in длинненький, длиннющий, длинноватый, etc. ) are alien to the English adjective (the only exception is -ish in whitish, reddish, etc. ). Russian adjectives have the categories of number (длинный — длинные), gender (длинный — длинная — длинное), and case (длинный, длинного, длинному, etc. ) which English adjectives no longer possess. The only category Russian and English adjectives have in common is the category of the degrees of comparison.
In Russian as well as in English the category of the degrees of comparison is represented in three-member opposemes, but there are some distinctions. a) The 'positive degree' is unmarked in English, whereas it is marked in Russian (Cf. red, красный). Taking into consideration that more than 90% of all adjectives in speech belong to the 'positive degree' grammemes, we may say that in the overwhelming majority of cases the form of an English adjective does not signal to what part of speech the word belongs. In the Russian language every full adjective is marked; it shows by its form that it is an adjective. b) The formations более красивый, самый красивый resemble the analytical forms more beautiful, most beautiful, but they can hardly be regarded as analytical forms since they are not in complementary distribution with the corresponding synthetic forms. Длиннее and более длинный are rather stylistic synonyms.
In both languages there are qualitative and relative adjectives. In both languages the relative adjectives and some qualitative ones have no opposites of comparison a) Most qualitative adjectives in the Russian language have corresponding "short" opposites (умный — умен). There is nothing similar in English b) The proportion of relative adjectives is much greater in Russian where they constitute the bulk of adjectives. English 'common case' nouns often render the meanings of Russian relative adjectives, e. g. домашние расходы. — household expenses, настольная лампа — a table lamp, etc. c) c) Among the relative adjectives of the Russian language there is a group of 'possessive' adjectives like Ольгин, мамин, having no English counterparts
The combinability of adjectives is to some extent similar in the two languages. Yet there are differences. a) In English one can speak only of two levels of combinability: lexical and lexico-grammatical. In Russian grammatical combinability is of great importance too. ( белый потолок, белая стена, белых стен, etc. ) b) The so-called 'short' adjectives and the synthetic comparatives' of Russian adjectives have as a rule no righthand connections with nouns c) A peculiar feature of the combinability of the English adjective is its right-hand connection with the prop-word one; a good one, a better one, the best one.