mr Happy
نقاط : 2703
تاريخ التسجيل : 26/03/2009
 |  موضوع: Adjectives and Nouns ....... الصفات والأسماء فى الانجليزية  الجمعة يوليو 31, 2009 9:33 am | |
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Nominal Adjectives
Certain adjectives are used to denote a class by describing one of the attributes of the class. For example, the poor denotes a class of people who share a similar financial status. Other nominal adjectives are:
the old
the sick
the wealthy
the blind
the innocent
A major subclass of nominal adjectives refers to nationalities:
the French
the British
the Japanese
However, not all nationalities have corresponding nominal adjectives. Many of them are denoted by plural, proper nouns:
the Germans
the Russians
the Americans
the Poles
Nominal adjectives do not refer exclusively to classes of people. Indeed some of them do not denote classes at all:
the opposite
the contrary
the good
Comparative and superlative forms can also be nominal adjectives:
the best is yet to come
the elder of the two
the greatest of these
the most important among them
We refer to all of these types as nominal adjectives because they share some of the characteristics of nouns (hence `nominal') and some of the characteristics of adjectives. They have the following nominal characteristics:
• they are preceded by a determiner (usually the definite article the)
• they can be modified by adjectives (the gallant French, the unfortunate poor)
They have the following adjectival features:
• they are gradable (the very old, the extremely wealthy)
• many can take comparative and superlative forms (the poorer, the poorest)
Adjectives and Nouns
We have seen that attributive adjectives occur before a noun which they modify, for example, red in red car. We need to distinguish these clearly from nouns which occur in the same position, and fulfil the same syntactic function. Consider the following:
rally car
saloon car
family car
Here, the first word modifies the second, that is, it tells us something further about the car. For example, a rally car is a car which is driven in rallies. These modifiers occur in the same position as red in the example above, but they are not adjectives. We can show this by applying our criteria for the adjective class.
Firstly, they do not take very:
*a very rally car
*a very saloon car
*a very family car
Secondly, they do not have comparative or superlative forms:
*rallier *ralliest / *more rally / *most rally
*salooner *saloonest / *more saloon / *most saloon
*familier *familiest / *more family / *most family
And finally, they cannot occur in predicative position:
*the car is rally
*the car is saloon
*the car is family
So although these words occupy the typical adjective position, they are not adjectives. They are nouns.
However, certain adjectives are derived from nouns, and are known as DENOMINAL adjectives. Examples include:
a mathematical puzzle [`a puzzle based on mathematics']
a biological experiment [`an experiment in biology']
a wooden boat [`a boat made of wood']
Denominals include adjectives which refer to nationality:
a Russian lady [`a lady who comes from Russia']
German goods [`goods produced in Germany']
Denominal adjectives of this type should be carefully distinguished from nominal adjectives denoting nationalities. Compare:
Nominal Adjective: The French are noted for their wines
Denominal Adjective: The French people are noted for their wines    | |
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Why not
نقاط : 1824
تاريخ التسجيل : 08/06/2009
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mr Happy
نقاط : 2703
تاريخ التسجيل : 26/03/2009
| | موضوع: رد: Adjectives and Nouns ....... الصفات والأسماء فى الانجليزية الإثنين سبتمبر 21, 2009 8:16 pm | |
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