Introduction___________________________________2

Part 1

1.1Adjectives. ________________________________3

1.2Degrees of Comparison ______________________3

1.3Substantivization of Adjectives.  _______________6

1.4Syntactic Functions of Adjectives.______________7

Part 2

2.1Position of Adjectives________________________7

2.2Order of Adjectives. _________________________9

2.3Adjectives with prepositions. _________________11

2.4Adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive or ‘that’-clauses ___13

Conclusion__________________________________17

Appendix ___________________________________19

Bibliography ________________________________20

Introduction

We have chosen this theme because we like adjectives from our early school age. It was interesting for us to investigate adjectives and to find something new that we didn’t know before. First of all we found out the basical definitions of adjectives to describe it as part of speech. We used many theoretical books to do our course work, such as: « Modern English language» (Theoretical course grammar) V.N. Zhigadlo, I.P. Ivanova, L.L. Iofik.  Moscow, 1956 y., Baker, Mark. 2005. Lexical Categories - Verbs, nouns and adjectives. Cambridge University Press, etc. Then we looked through the “Warren, Beatrice. (1984). Classifying adjectives. Gothenburg studies in English” to know their theories and thoughts about adjectives as a part of speech. Here what we found about it:

  In grammar, an adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun, usually by describing it or making its meaning more specific. Adjectives exist in most languages. The most widely recognized adjectives in English are words such as big, old, and tired that actually describe people, places, or things. These words can themselves be modified with adverbs, as in the phrase very big.The articles a, an, and the and possessive nouns, such as Mary's, are classified as adjectives by some grammarians; however, such classification may be specific to one particular language. Other grammarians call such noun modifiers determiners. Similarly, possessive adjectives, such as his or her, are sometimes called determinative possessive pronouns, and demonstrative adjectives, such as this or that, are called determinative demonstratives.In some languages, participles are used as adjectives. Examples of participles used as adjectives are lingering in the phrase lingering headache and broken in the phrase broken toys. Nouns that modify other nouns are sometimes called modifying nouns, nouns used adjectivally, or just part of a compound noun (like the word ice in ice cream).

Adjectives.

According to the theories of Dixon, R. M. W. (1977). “Where have all the adjectives gone?” Studies in Language, 1, 19-80 :

Adjectives are the third major class of words  in  English,  after  nouns

and verbs. Adjectives are  words  expressing  properties  of  objects  (e.g.

large, blue, simple, clever, economic, progressive,  productive,  etc)  and,

hence, qualifying  nouns.Adjectives in English  do  not  change  for  number  or  case.  The  only grammatical category they have is the degrees of comparison. They  are  also characterized by functions in the sentence.

Degrees of Comparison.

There  are  three  degrees  of  comparison:  positive,  comparative  and

superlative. The positive form is the  plain  stem  of  an  adjective  (e.g.

heavy, slow, straight, etc) . The comparative  states  that  one  thing  has

more of the quality named by the  adjective  than  some  other  thing  (e.g.Henry is taller than John). The superlative states that the  thing  has  the greatest degree of the quality  among  the  things  being  considered  (e.g. Henry is the tallest boy in the class) Most one-syllable adjectives, and most two-syllable adjectives ending  in -y, -ow, -er, or consonant +-le , with loud stress  on  the  first  syllable and weak stress on the second, form their  comparative  and  superlative  by the addition of the suffixes -er and -est.

Positive

Comparative

Superlative

clever

cleverer

cleverest

narrow

narrower

narrowest

pretty

prettier

prettiest

simple

simpler

simplest

  Adjectives derived by prefixes from  those  that  use  -er/-est  also  use

these suffixes, even though the addition of prefixes makes them longer  that two syllables: unhappy - unhappier –unhappiest.

   All adjectives other than those enumerated above form  their  comparative by  using  the  intensifier  more  and  their  superlative  by   using   the intensifier the most.

Positive

Comparative

Superlative

interesting

more interesting

the most interesting

generous

more generous

the most generous

personal

more personal

the most personal

  In a very few cases, English permits a choice  between  the  two  devices:

commoner / more common, commonest / the  most  common.  Ordinary,  when  one form is prescribed by the rules, the other is forbidden. ............