The adjective

It has only one grammatical category: degrees of comparison (the positive, comparative, superlative). Some adjectives build their degree of comparison in the suplitave way, that is they use different stems: good-better-best. Degrees of comparison are built either synthetically, with the help of the suffixes –er or –est or analytically with the help of words more/most. The prescription of normative grammars is that monosyllabic and bi-syllabic adjectives should use the synthetic way and longer adjectives should use analytical combinations (clean – cleaner – the cleanest), but Ch. Barber noticed in an obvious tendency to use analytical forms even with mono- and bi-syllabic adjectives (more fussy, more quiet, simple, clever, pleasant, plain).

In modern E. in compound adjectives instead of saying ‘better dressed, best informed’ there is the tendency to prefer analytical way in deriving the degree of comparison.

Adjective is a part of speech characterized by the following typical features:

1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of “ attributes (of substantives)” = different properties of substantives (size, colour, position in space, material, psychic state of persons, etc.)

2. The morphological category of the degrees of comparison.

3. The characteristic combinability with nouns (a beautiful girl), link verbs (…is clever), adverbs, mostly those of degree (a very clever boy), the so-called “prop word” one (the grey one).

4. The stem-building affixes –ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, un-, pre-, in-, etc.

5. Its functions of an attribute and a predicative complement.

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