Morphological composition of the adjective.
Adjectives are divided into simple, derivative and compound.
1. Simple adjectives are adjectives which have neither prefixes nor suffixes. They are indecomposable: e. g. good, red, black.
2. Derivative adjectivesare adjectives which have derivative elements, suffixes or prefixes or both: beautiful, foolish, hopeless, unkind, unimportant.
Productive adjective-forming suffixes are:
-less: friendless, harmless, hopeless
-like: childlike
-ish: childish, foolish
-ed (-d): beaded, blue-eyed
Unproductive suffixes are:
-fid: careful
‑ible: responsible
‑able: reliable
‑ant: important
‑ent: dependent
‑en: woolen
‑ous: dangerous
‑some: troublesome
Productive adjective-forming prefixes are:
un-: unhappy
pre-: prewar
The unproductive prefix of the adjective is:
in-: incorrect
3. Compound adjectives are adjectives built from two or more stems.
The main types of compound adjectives are as follows:
(a) noun-stem + adjective-stem: snow-white.
(b) noun-stem + participle-stem: life-giving, smoke-dried.
(c) adjective-stem + adjective-stem: deaf-mute.
(d) adjective-stem + noun-stem + suffix ‑ed: cold-hearted.
(e) noun-stem + noun-stem + suffix ‑ed: lynx-eyed.
(f) numeral-stem + noun-stem + suffix ‑ed: four-wheeled.
(g) adverb-stem + noun-stem + suffix ‑ed: over-peopled.
Classification of adjectives.
According to their meaning and grammatical characteristics adjectives fall under two classes: (1) qualitative adjectives, (2) relative adjectives.
1. Qualitative adjectives denote qualities of a substance directly, not through its relation to another substance, as size, shape, colour, physical and mental qualities, qualities of general estimation:
little, large, high, soft, hard, warm, white, blue, pink, strong, hold, beautiful, important, necessary, etc.
2. Relative adjectivesdenote qualities of a substance through their relation to materials (silken, woollen, wooden), to place (Italian, Asian), to time (monthly, weekly), to some action (preparatory, rotatory).
Grammatical characteristics of qualitative adjectives.
1.Most qualitative adjectives have degrees of comparison:
| big | bigger | (the) biggest |
| interesting | more interesting | (the) most interesting |
Some qualitative adjectives such as greenish, darkish, incurable, unsuitable, chief, principal, have no degrees of comparison.
2. They have certain typical suffixes, such as ‑ful, ‑less, ‑ous, ‑ent, ‑able, ‑y, ‑ish: careful, careless, dangerous, convenient, comfortable, silvery, watery, whitish, shortish.
3. From most of them adverbs can be formed by the suffix ‑ly:
graceful — gracefully
gay — gaily
4. Most qualitative adjectives can be used as attributes and predicatives.
How lovely the littleriver is, with its dark,changing wavelets! (Eliot)
(ATTRIBUTES)
The youngman was introduced, and they sat down at the table. (Aldington)
(ATTRIBUTE)
But you’re nearly as oldas I am! (Aldington) (PREDICATIVE)
The Hartlys thought he was ‘rich’.George Augustus was so very
comfortable... that he too really thought he was rich!(Aldington)
(PREDICATIVES)
Grammatical characteristics of relative adjectives.
1. Relative adjectives have no degrees of comparison.
2. They do not form adverbs with the suffix ‑ly.
3. They have certain typical suffixes, such as ‑en, ‑an, -ist, ‑ic, ‑ical: wooden, Italian, socialist, synthetic, analytical.
4. Relative adjectives are chiefly used as attributes.
...she was a fair example of the middle Americanclass... (Dreiser)
(ATTRIBUTE)
She had noticed a pretty woodenchain upon Gretel’s neck. (Dodge)
(ATTRIBUTE)
“Certainly,” answered Hilda, looking kindly into the two earnest faces, and
wishing from her heart that she had not spent so much of her monthly
allowance for lace and finery. (Dodge) (ATTRIBUTE)
The morning was windyand sharp. (Saxton) (PREDICATIVE)
It must be pointed out that no hard and fast line of demarcation exists between relative and qualitative adjectives. Compare: silken thread (relative adjective), but silken hair (qualitative adjective).
Substantivized adjectives.
Substantivized adjectives have acquired some or all of the characteristics of the noun, but their adjectival origin is still generally felt.
Substantivized adjectives are divided into wholly substantivized and partially substantivized adjectives.
Wholly substantivized adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns, namely the plural form, the genitive case; they are associated with articles, i. e. they have become nouns: a native, the natives, a native’s hut.
Some wholly substantivized adjectives have only the plural form: eatables, valuables, ancients, sweets, greens.
Partially substantivized adjectives acquire only some of the characteristics of the noun; they are used with the definite article. Partially substantivized adjectives denote a whole class: the rich, the poor, the unemployed. They may also denote abstract notions: the good, the evil, the beautiful, the singular, the plural, the future, the present, the past.
Substantivized adjectives denoting nationalities fall under wholly and partially substantivized adjectives.
Wholly substantivized adjectives are: a Russian — Russians, a German — Germans.
Partially substantivized adjectives are: the English, the French, the Chinese.
Chapter IV
THE PRONOUN
§ 1. The pronoun is a part of speech which points out objects and their qualities without naming them.
Classification of pronouns.
Pronouns fall under the following groups:
(1) personalpronouns: I, he, she, it, we, you, they.
(2) possessivepronouns: my, his, her, its, our, your, their; mine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs.
(3) reflexivepronouns: myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourself (yourselves), themselves.
(4) reciprocalpronouns: each other, one another.
(5) demonstrativepronouns: this (these), that (those), such, (the) same.
(6) interrogative pronouns: who, whose, what, which.
(7) relativepronouns: who, whose, which, that, as.
(8) conjunctivepronouns: who, whose, which, what.
(9) definingpronouns: each, every, everybody, everyone, everything, all, either, both, other, another.
(10) indefinitepronouns: some, any, somebody, anybody, something, anything, someone, anyone, one.
(11) negativepronouns: no, none, neither, nobody, no one, nothing.
There is no uniformity of morphological and syntactical characteristics in the groups of pronouns. Some pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, gender, case, and number.The categories of person and gender (in the third person singular) exist only in personal, and possessive pronouns.
Pronouns as well as nouns have two cases but whereas some pronouns (e. g., personal pronouns and the relative and interrogative who)have the nominative and objective cases, others (e. g. indefinite pronouns such as somebody, reciprocal pronouns such as one another, negative pronouns such as nobody)have the common and genitive cases.
The category of number is found in demonstrative pronouns (this and that)and the defining pronoun other.
Many pronouns are characterised by double syntactical use (they may be used as subject, predicative, object, and at the same time as attribute). Here belong demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, etc.
Personal pronouns.
1.The personal pronouns are: I, he, she, it, we, you, they. The personal pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, case, number and (in the third person singular) gender.
The personal pronouns have two cases:the nominativecase and the objectivecase.
The nominative case: /, he, she, it, we, you, they.1
1 The archaic pronoun of the second person singular is thou.
The objective case: me, him, her, it, us, you, them.2
2 The objective case of thou is thee.
The objective case of the pronouns I, he, she, we is expressed by suppletive forms.
In colloquial speech me, not I is commonly used as a predicative: Who is there? — It is me.
The personal pronouns have two numbers,singular (I, he, she, it) and plural (we, they).
The second-person pronoun you is both singular and plural.
The pronouns of the third person he, she, it distinguish gender.Male beings (man, father, uncle, boy, etc.) are referred to as he; female beings (woman, mother, aunt, girl, etc.) are referred toas she; inanimate things (house, tree, cap, etc.)are referred to as it.3
3 In literary style the general principle is to associate with the pronoun he words indicating strong forces, violent passions, violent actions, big heavenly bodies (wind, fear, love, anger, despair, sun); and to associate with the pronoun she gentler forces, gentler feelings, smaller heavenly bodies (hope, mercy, justice, modesty, moon).
Her husbandasked a few questions and sat down to read the evening paper.
He was a silent man... (Dreiser)
And then he turned and saw the girl... Shewas a pale, ethereal creature, with
wide, spiritual eyes and a wealth of golden hair. (London)
He did not know what to do with his cap, and was stuffing itinto his coat
pocket... (London)
As some nouns denote animate beings of either sex, masculine or feminine (friend, teacher, servant, cousin etc.), personal pronouns are often used to specify them:
“Tell your servant that he must not use such words to Hendrike, Mr. Allan,”
Stella said to me. (Haggard)
2. Personal pronouns may have different functions in the sentence, those of subject, object, predicative:
I was not free to resume the interrupted chain of my reflections till bed-time...
(Ch. Bronte) (SUBJECT)
He arranged to meet herat the 96th Street station... (Wilson) (OBJECT)
“Who’s there?” “It’s me.” “Who’s me?” “George Jackson, sir.” (Twain)
(PREDICATIVE)
But I think that was himI spoke to. (Cronin) (PREDICATIVE)
Possessive pronouns.
1. Possessive pronouns have the same distinctions of person, number,and genderas personal pronouns.
2. Possessive pronouns have two forms, namely the dependent (or conjoint)form and the independent(or absolute) form.