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1. Introduction
relative clauses. This unit shows the expression of quality starting by adjective phrases and
He was [happy]
Adjectives will be carefully studied providing information about the different types that
the term “ADJECTIVE” comprehends. We will also see how the expression of quality can
be rendered by some other words in addition to adjectives. Besides, we will see how
words can be gradable or not, depending of the characteristic that they are enhancing. As
A quality adjective cannot be identified as such just by looking at it in isolation, since the
form does not necessarily indicate its syntactic meaning. We find adjectives with some
identifying suffixes (-ous) but some other ones do not have any distinctive feature
(good, hot, little, fat). We can identify a word as an adjective merely by considering
what inflections of affixes it will allow. Also, most quality adjectives can be premodified
by degree adverbs or intensifiers, such as very, quite, rather etc. and can take
Quality adjectives are invariable in English. The same form indicates masculine,
feminine, singular and plural. Many of them can be followed by a prepositional phrase,
Attributive adjectives premodify the noun by appearing between the determiner and
predicative position―are termed “inherent”, for example, the sky is blue. Adjectives in
attributive position are termed “non-inherent”. They do not characterize the referent of
the noun directly, for example, the American lady was a millionaire. Some non-inherent
adjectives, however, occur also predicatively. For example, both A new student and A new
friend are non-inherent. The former context, however, can be adapted to be used predicatively:
that student is new versus the latter, which cannot my friend is new.
An old friend (“one who has been a friend for a long period of time”) does not necessarily
imply that the person is old, so that we cannot relate my old friend to my friend is old. Here old
does not characterize the person. In that use old is attributive only. On the other hand, in that
old man, old is a central adjective (the opposite of young) and we can relate that old
man to that man is old. A central adjective is one which can be used both attributively
and predicatively.
Some adjectives have a heightening or lowering effect on the noun that they
Amplifiers denote the upper extreme of the scale or a high point on the scale.
(POSITION: ATTRIBUTIVE/PREDICATIVE/POSTPOSITIVE)
Predicative adjectives appear after the verb. Verbs used in this way are called “link
verbs” or “copulas” which are establishing a direct relationship between the subject and a
quality of it.
1) Subject complement.
2) Object Complement.
The adjective functioning as OBJECT complement often expresses the result of the
(Leech & Svartvik) when they follow the item that they modify. It can be regarded as a
The people involved were reported to the police = The people who were involved
Indefinite pronouns ending in –body, -one, -thing, -where, can be modified only
postpositively:
Some postposed adjectives, especially those ending in –able / -ible retain the basic
meaning that they have in attributive position, but they convey the implication that what they
are denoting has only a temporary application. Thus, the stars visible refers to stars that are
visible at a time specified or implied, whereas the visible stars refers to a category of stars that
allowed:
The rather timid soldiers approached the officer this one would be correct whereas The
If the adjective is modified by enough / too / so, the modified adjective cannot normally
be separated from its complementation, unless it is positioned before the indefinite article of the
However, it is more usual to prepose the adjective and its premodifiers, if any, and
active and indicating “having the effect of” and the latter being passive and meaning “affected
in the way of…”. These adjectives can be both attributive and predicative:
Adjectives can function as heads of noun phrases. As such, they normally take a definite
determiner, usually the definite article, and have no plural or genitive case inflection. There are
two kinds of such adjectives, both with generic reference, those denoting a class of people, and
There is a often lack of communication between the young and the old
Nouns can function similarly as quality adjectives by being positioned in front of the head
Compound premodifiers, which are quite common, are combinations of words functioning
Icy-cold water
Good-looking person
They take the form of prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, noun phrases, participial
constructions, etc.
These are formed either through noun premodification or through noun compounds, or through
a combination of both:
The football club in the city of Lancaster > Lancaster City football club
following: Next before a head noun, a denominal adjective appears; preceding a denominal
adjective comes a noun modifier, preceding which is the most important class of items, which
is the adjective of provenance or style; preceding this type is the participle; preceding the
participle we have adjectives of colour; preceding these adjectives of age, together with the
There are three kinds of relative clauses: defining, non-defining and connective. In this unit
only the first two will be described, since connective relative clauses do not describe or qualify
objects and nouns. Connective relative just continue the story: I told Peter, who said (=and he
These clauses describe the preceding noun in such a way as to distinguish it from other
“Who told me this” is the relative clause. If we omit this, it is not clear what man we are
talking about.
The Choice of the relative pronoun in a defining relative clause is related two a twofold
consideration. First, to their function as subject or object in the clause. Second, to the reference
that they make, personal or non personal. The following chart shows all the possibilities.
Examples:
Whom is considered too formal for personal objects; who or that are used, instead, that
a house whose walls were made of glass=a house with glass walls
Non-defining relative clauses are placed after nouns which are definite already. They do
not therefore define the noun, but merely add something to it by giving some more information
about it. They are not essential in the sentence and can be omitted without causing confusion.
The choice of the relative pronoun in a non-defining clause is also related to a twofold
consideration. First, to their function as subject or object in the clause. Second, to the reference
that they make, personal or non personal. The following chart shows all the possibilities:
Examples:
2) Subject/non personal reference: Oz,which is a huge dog, howls all the time.
3) Object/personal reference: The German lady, whom we met in born, has resigned.
6) Possessive/non personal reference: That´s the new book, whose title is awkward.
Degree can be applied to “gradable” words, that is, words whose meaning can
be thought in terms of a “scale”. Most pairs of words of opposite meaning are gradable, like
How old is that dog? It´s very / quite / rather / fairly / pretty / too / absolutely old
Degree adverbs and degree phrases can sometimes act either as premodifiers (with
There are two main kind of gradable words: “scale” words indicate a relative position on
a scale (large, small) and “limit” words indicate the end-point of a scale (black, white).
With limit words the same adverbs can function as modifiers and as adverbials. The two
1) Those indicating that the limit word’s meaning is used to its fullest extent:
2) Those indicating a position near the limit of the scale: almost, nearly, practically.
Very acts as a premodifier, whereas much acts as an adverbial. Much is limited to mid
Although some degree adverbs have the same meaning with respect to “scale” and
meaning, whereas rather, completely, and utterly sometimes suggest a negative or “bad”
meaning.
Some degree adverbs only have negative interpretation. They are barely, hardly,
scarcely, at all.
I scarcely noticed him
Apart from the degree adverbs listed so far, there are degree adverbs which are more
restricted in their use, and tend to go with a particular set of gradable words. These adverbs
-Badly goes with the verbs need, want = He badly needs a haircut
-Thoroughly goes with the verbs enjoy, disapprove, dislike, etc = I thoroughly enjoyed the film
-Hard goes with the verbs work, try, study, etc = If you want to pass the exam you have to
study hard
5. Comparison
degree or amount, the comparative words taller, happier, etc. or the comparative phrases more
careful, less careful, etc. are to be used. The following sentences have all the same meaning,
Jack is less short than Jill A sentence like this is very unusual, and would only be said if
For equal comparisons as…as is used in affirmative sentences and not/ so/as…as is used
in negative sentences:
COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE
Examples:
Old is generally inflected older, oldest but in a specialised used, restricted to family
relations, the irregular forms elder,eldest are normally substituted in attributed position, unless
used as the head of a noun phrase, or a –than construction is used, in which case older is
always used.
Gradable nouns can be applied the following comparative phrases: more of a, as much of
5.3. Proportion
As you go farther north, so the winters become longer and more severe
Another construction expressing proportion consists of two clauses beginning with the +
a comparative word:
The farther north you go, the more severe the winters are
6. Conclusion
As we have seen during the theme the expression of quality is a very varied one, that is,
we find different resources to show the degree of quality that we want to show through our
statements. The role of the English teacher is that of the one whose knowledge about the
subject comprehends all these points that we have seen. Teaching students how to refer to the
quality, valuable characteristics of someone or something, is not to start with adjectives and to
end up teaching them comparisons through proportion. Explanations will be graded according to
the necessities of students, and all the ways of enhancing characteristics will be taught following
the learning pace of students. Something which is important is that student has to be
familiarised with the fact that expressing the quality is not just a concern of having a plenty
range of adjectives in his or her vocabulary. It is more than that, in addition to grasp the
vocabulary they need to know how to use it, the position which is expected of each word
according to the case that they are using. They cannot use the pattern of expression of quality
that they have in Spanish and make a literal translation into English, and our duty as English
teachers is to make students to be familiarised with the different situation where quality is
suitable to be expressed and the different ways for doing it, that have been established in the