Грамматика английского языка Морфология. Синтаксис (стр. 36 из 71)
Paul Long, a neighbour of yours, will be visiting us this evening.
The definite article implies that the listener (reader) is supposed to be familiar with the person or thing mentioned from his general knowledge or the situation
I want to speak to Mr Smith, the electrician.
"Hamlet", the tragedy by Shakespeare, has been screened many a time.
Note a restrictive appositions in noun phrases of the kind: the (famous) novelist Gr. Greene, the novel "The Heart of the Matter", the number ten (цифра десять) (but: page number 10), the noun "story" the letter "e".
§ 207. According to their way of nomination adjectives fall into two groups - qualitative and relative.
Qualitative adjectives denote properties of a substance directly (great, cold, beautiful, etc.).
Relative adjectives describe properties of a substance through relation to materials (woollen, wooden, feathery, leathern, flaxen), to place (Northern, European, Bulgarian, Italian), to time (daily, monthly, weekly, yearly), to some action (defensive, rotatory, preparatory), or to relationship (fatherly, friendly).
Qualitative adjectives in their turn may be differentiated according to their meaning into descriptive, denoting a quality in a broad sense (wonderful, light, cold, etc.) and limiting, denoting a specific category, a part of a whole, a sequence of order, a number (the previous page, an equestrian statue, medical aid, the left hand).
Limiting adjectives single out the object or substance, impart a concrete or unique meaning to it, specify it, and therefore can seldom be replaced by other adjectives of similar meaning.
Among limiting adjectives there is a group of intensifiers, which often form a phraseological unit with their head-word, for example: an obvious failure, a definite loss, a sure sign, a complete fool, absolute nonsense, plain nonsense, the absolute limit.
Relative adjectives are also limiting in their meaning.
Many adjectives may function either as descriptive or limiting, depending on the head-word and the context. Thus a little finger may denote either a small finger or the last finger of a hand. In the first case little is descriptive, in the second it is limiting. Likewise musical in a musical voice is descriptive, while it is limiting in a musical instrument.
Adjectives also differ as to their function. Some of them are used only attributively and cannot be used as p r e d i с a t i v e s (a top boy in the class, but not *the boy was top): some are used only as predicatives and never as attrubutes (He is well again, but not *The well boy).
The change in the position and, accordingly, of the syntactic status of the adjective may also result in the change in the meaning of the adjective. Thus in a fast train the adjective is limiting and denotes a specific kind of train (скорый поезд), whereas in the train was fast the adjective is descriptive, as it describes the way the train moved (поезд шел на большой скорости).
§ 208. According to their morphological composition adjectives can be subdivided into simple, derived and compound.
In the case of simple adjectives such as kind, new, fresh, we cannot always tell whether a word is an adjective by looking at it in isolation, as the form does not always indicate its status.
Derived adjectives are recognizable morphologically. They consist of one root morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes - suffixes or prefixes. There are the following adjective-forming suffixes:
| -able -al -ary -ed -en -que -fold -ful -ic -id -ish -ive -less -like -ly -most -ory -ous -some -y | understandable musical, governmental documentary beaded, barbed wooden, silken, shrunken picturesque twofold, manifold careful, sinful pessimistic, atomic torpid, morbid feverish, bluish effective, distinctive careless, spotless manlike, warlike kindly, weekly, homely uttermost observatory glorious lonesome, troublesome handy, messy |
Some adjectives are former participles and therefore retain participial suffixes: charming, interesting, cunning, daring.
The suffixes -ly, -ed, -ful, -ary, -al, -y are not confined to adjectives only. Thus, many adverbs are derived from adjectives hy means of the suffix -ly (strongly, bitterly, quickly). Most of the verbs form their past tense and participle II with -ed. There are many nouns with the suffixes -al (festival, scandal, criminal), -ary (boundary, missionary), -ful (mouthful, handful), -y (sonny, doggy), etc.
Compound adjectives consist of at least two stems. They may be of several patterns:
a) consisting of a noun + an adjective:
colour-blind, grass-green;
b) consisting of an adjective + an adjective:
deaf-mute;
c) consisting of an adverb + a participle:
well-known, newly-repaired, much-praised;
d) Consisting of a noun/pronoun + a verbal:
all-seeing, heart-breaking, high-born, high-flown, man-made;
e) consisting of an adjective/adverb + a noun + the suffix -ed:
blue-eyed, long-legged, fair-haired, down-hearted.
§ 209. Adjectives in English do not take any endings to express agreement with the head-word.
The only pattern of morphological change is that of degrees of comparison, which is possible only for descriptive qualitative adjectives the meaning of which is compatible with the idea of gradation of quality.
There are three grades of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The superlative is generally used with the definite article. Ways of formation may be synthetic, analytic, and suppletive (irregular). The synthetic way is by adding the inflection -er, -est, as fine -finer - finest. This means is found with monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives in which the stress falls on the last syllable:
1) full - fuller - fullest
| polite profound complete | - politer - profounder - completer | - politest - profoundest - completest |
2) in which the second syllable is the syllabic [1]:
| able noble | - abler - nobler | - ablest - noblest |
3) with adjectives in -er, -y, -some, -ow:,
| tender happy handsome narrow | - tenderer - happier - handsomer - narrower | - tenderest - happiest - handsomest - narrowest |
Synthetic inflection, however, is often found in other disyllabic adjectives:
You are the horridest man I have ever seen.
Polysyllabic adjectives form their degrees of comparison analytically, by means of more and most:
difficult - more difficult - most difficult
curious - more curious - most curious
Note 1:
Even monosyllabic adjectives used in postposition or predicatively have a greater tendency towards analytic forms of comparison than when used attributively.
Compare:
He is a man more clever thап you.
He is a cleverer man.
The superlative is sometimes used without the when the aqjective denotes a very high degree of quality and no comparison with other objects is implied.
The path is steepest here.
She is happiest at home.
Note 2:
This morphological pattern (long - longer - longest) is not confined to adjectives, there are also a number of adverbs which may have the same endings, i.e. soon - sooner - soonest, hard - harder - hardest.
Superlatives are often used alone before an of-phrase:
the best of friends, the youngest of the family.
Several adjectives form their degrees of comparison by means of (suppletive forms) irregularly:
| good/well bad little many | - better - worse - less - more | - best - worst - least - most |
| far | farther - farthest (with reference to distance) further - furthest (with reference to distance, abstract notions and in figurative use) |
| old | older - oldest (with reference to age) elder - eldest (with reference to the sequence of brothers and sisters) |
Adjectival compounds can be inflected in two ways, either the first element is inflected (if it is an adjective or adverb), or comparison is with more and most, for example:
| well-known dull-witted kind-hearted | - better-known - more dull-witted - more kind-hearted | - best-known - most dull-witted - most kind-hearted |
The following adjectives generally do not form degrees of comparison:
1. Limiting qualitative adjectives which single out or determine the type of things or persons, such as:
previous, middle, left, childless, medical, dead, etc.
2. Relative adjectives (which are also limiting in their meaning) such as:
woollen, wooden, flaxen, earthen, ashen.
3. Adjectives with comparative and superlative meaning (the so-called gradables) which are of Latin origin:
former, inner, upper, junior, senior, prior, superior, etc. (originally with comparative meaning), and
minimal, optimal, proximal, etc. (originally with superlative meaning).
With most of them the comparative meaning has been lost and they are used as positive forms (the inner wall, the upper lip, superior quality, minimal losses).
However, some comparatives borrowed from Latin (major, minor, exterior, interior, junior, senior) may form their own comparatives with a change of meaning.
4. Adjectives already denoting some gradation of quality, such as darkish, greenish, etc.
Adjectives of participial origin
§ 210. Only certain adjectives derived from participles reach full adjectival status. Among those in current use are interesting, charming, crooked, learned, ragged and those compounded with another element, which sometimes gives them quite a different meaning (good-looking, heartbreaking, hard-boiled, frost-bitten, weather-beaten, etc.).
In most cases, however, the difference between the adjective and the participle is revealed only in the sentence. The difference lies in the verbal nature retained by the participle. The verbal nature is explicit when a direct object or a by-object is present. This can be seen from the following pairs of sentences:
| With an adjective | With a participle |
| You are insulting. His views were alarming The man was offended. | You are insulting us. His views were alarming the audience. The man was offended by the secretary’s remark. |
The verbal force of the participle is revealed in its limited combinability - it is not combinable with very. In the above sentences, it is possible to use very in the left-hand column, but not in the right-hand column.
Some adjectives only look like participles, there being no corresponding verbs:
downhearted, talented, diseased.
In some cases there are corresponding verbs, but the -ed- participle is not interpreted as passive, because the corresponding verb can be used only intransitively:
the escaped prisoner (the prisoner who has escaped)
the departed guests (the guests who have departed)
the faded curtains (the curtains which have faded)
the retired officer (the officer who has retired)
(See participles of intransitive verbs, § 143.)
Some adjectives coincide in form with adverbs, for example, slow, long, fast, above, real, mighty, sure, the last three being used as adverbs only in colloquial style.
| Adjectives | Adverbs |
| The examples above (given above) a fast walk It is real. He is sure of it. | We could see nothing above or below to walk fast He is real good. It sure will help. |