Adjectives
Adjectives
Semantic characteristics:
“What’s it like?”
Describe
Modify noun/pronoun
Gradable
Gives more info.
Cf. 
Articles !
Relative clauses (“Adjective clauses”)
Prepositional phrases
Adjectives
Morphological characteristics:
Simple form: ugly, poor, weak, cheap
Complex form:
Affixes/derivation
N → Adj: beauty-ful, wealth-y, in-expens- ive
V → Adj:attract-ive, in-digest-ible, unaccept-able
Participial:  amaz-ing ; amazed
Compound: good-looking;
INVARIABLE – never change in form
! But: cf. comparative & superlative constructions
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Adjectives
Adjectives (gradable) can be compared!
Regular forms of comparison:
POSITIVE
COMPARATIVE
SUPERLATIVE
rich
lovely
beautiful
richer
lovelier
more beautiful
richest
loveliest
most beautiful
Adjectives
Irregular forms of comparison:
POSITIVE
COMPARATIVE
SUPERLATIVE
good
bad
little
far
better
worse
less
further
best
worst
least
furthest
much
many
some
more
most
Adjectives
Morphological characteristics: -ed and –ing
adjectives: describing feelings & things
'My holiday was relaxing. I felt really relaxed.‘
Participial Adjs.
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Adjectives
feel '-ed'
describe '-ing'
annoyed
annoying
bored
boring
confused
confusing
depressed
depressing
excited
exciting
frightened
frightening
frustrated
frustrating
satisfied
satisfying
shocked
shocking
Adjectives
Syntactic characteristics:
Head of an adjectice phrase
e.g. very dark, eager to help
Precede noun…
skinny girl, chubby kid, warm sweater
…attributive
Follow “verb”  …
She is skinny
Maria is responsive
She declares herself bankrupt
…predicative
Adjectives
≠ position ≠ function

OCD is a disabling condition.
This condition is disabling.
ATTRIBUTIVE
PREDICATIVE
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Adjective collocations!
To
To
To
To
To
To
To
To
be
be
be
be
be
be
be
be
good at statistics
vague about
allergic to
aware that + clause
furious that someome cheated on you
furious to learn that someone cheated on you
highly interesting
deeply/thoroughly ashamed of oneself
Etc.
Cf. Unit 4 BBI workbook
Adjective order
is correct vs. is not correct!
e.g.
wooden red ugly box
ugly red wooden box
Adjective order
is correct vs. is not correct!
e.g.
wooden red ugly box 
ugly red wooden box 
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Adjective order
“rule”
Find head (noun)
Adj.
=> general to specific
=> less inherent to more inherent
=> subjective to objective
Adjective order
Determiner!
Opinion/judgement
Size
Age
Shape
Colour
Nationality
Material
Purpose/qualifier
Adjective order
Determiner!
Opinion/judgement (interesting,
Size (tall, small)
Age (young, old, new, historic,
Shape (round, square)
Colour
Nationality (e.g. Finnish, with
Material
Purpose/qualifier (e.g. fishing
nice)
ancient)
capital F!)
boat, racing
car)
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Adjective order
Order dictated by intended meaning, though strongly
influenced by type of pre-modifiers (Biber et al.
1999: 598)
Preferred order:
Adv + Adj + Colour Adj + Participle + N + head N
No absolute rules!
BUT tendencies
Adjective order
Compare:
RED
BIG
BIG
RED
The
fox
size
colour
Adjective order
Compare:
The red [big fox]
The big [red fox]
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Adjective order
Compare & discuss
Mary’s old good recipes
Mary’s good old recipes
Moldwarp’s brilliant new geological hypotheses
Moldwarp’s new brilliant geological hypotheses
Adjective order
Task
tall a tree ancient oak
army several officers brilliant
great those brown eyes light
Spanish boots riding red leather
Chinese beautiful we those boxes bought
Adjective order
Answer
a tall ancient oak tree
several brilliant army officers
those great [light brown] eyes
Spanish [red leather] riding boots
those beautiful Chinese boxes we bought
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Idiomatic pairs of adjectives
E.g.
“cut and dried”
 cut + dried
 settled/final
Idiom: “number of words which, when taken together,
have a different meaning from the individual
meaning of each word” (Seidl & McMordie 1988: 13)
Seidl, J., & McMordie, W. (1988). English Idioms. Oxford: OUP (5th ed.).
What does it mean?
“fair and square”
What does it mean?
Let’s settle the bill for the damage fair and
square. We were both at fault, so we’ll both pay
half.
He raised his fist and hit him fair and square on
the chin.
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What does it mean?
Let’s settle the bill for the damage fair and
square. We were both at fault, so we’ll both pay
half.
1. in a fair way
He raised his fist and hit him fair and square on
the chin.
2. exactly, directly
Multiple choice!
I can’t tell you how to use prepositions correctly,
but I can give you a few --- rules.




safe and sound
rough & ready
free and easy
bright and early
Multiple choice!
I can’t tell you how to use prepositions correctly,
but I can give you a few --- rules.




safe and sound
rough & ready
free and easy
bright and early
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Multiple choice!
I can’t tell you how to use prepositions correctly,
but I can give you a few --- rules.




safe and sound > unharmed
rough & ready > only approximate, not exact
free and easy > casual, relaxed
bright and early > very early in the morning
Multiple choice!
I hope it won’t be formal dress for dinner in the
hotel – I like to be --- when I’m on holiday




safe and sound
rough & ready
free and easy
bright and early
Multiple choice!
I hope it won’t be formal dress for dinner in the
hotel – I like to be --- when I’m on holiday




safe and sound
rough & ready
free and easy
bright and early
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Multiple choice!
I hope it won’t be formal dress for dinner in the
hotel – I like to be --- when I’m on holiday




safe and sound > unharmed
rough & ready > only approximate, not exact
free and easy > casual, relaxed
bright and early > very early in the morning
What do they mean?
good and …
nice and …
Furthermore, we'll end this conversation when I'm
good and ready.
Good for your teeth. Makes your teeth nice and
strong.
There are many good and prosperous people here.
What do they mean?
“Some adjectives are conjoined with good or nice in
order to intensify the meaning of the adjective”
(Biber at al. 2002: 198)
E.g.
Good and sorry = very sorry
> “good” does not add its individual meaning
When?
Only if the “good and …“ sequence occurs in
predicative rather than attributive position
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What does it mean?
Funny
She sounds funny on the phone.
Told you about her having that - dish - and
went funny.
What's funny about me is that I'm very much
affectionate.
it
What does it mean?
Funny
She sounds funny [strange or unusual and not what
you expect] on the phone.
Told you about her having that - dish - and it
went funny [bad].
What's funny [noteworthy] about me is that I'm very
much affectionate.
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