Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 60 стр.

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"specificative". One and the same adjective, irrespective of its being "relative" or

"qualitative", can be used either in the evaluative function or in the specificative

function. For instance, the adjective good is basically qualitative. On the other

hand, when employed as a grading term in teaching, i.e. a term forming part of the

marking scale together with the grading terms bad, satisfactory, excellent, it

acquires the said specificative value; in other words, it becomes a specificative, not

an evaluative unit in the grammatical sense. Conversely, the adjective wooden is

basically relative, but when used in the broader meaning "expressionless" or

"awkward" it acquires an evaluative force and, consequently, can presuppose a

greater or lesser degree ("amount") of the denoted properly in the corresponding

referent.

Thus, the introduced distinction between the evaluative and specificative

uses of adjectives, in the long run, emphasizes the fact that the morphological

category of comparison (comparison degrees) is potentially represented in the

whole class of adjectives and is constitutive for it.

Adjectives that characterize the referent of the noun directly are termed

inherent

, those that do not are termed non-inherent.

eg. an old member of the club – the member of the club is old

Most adjectives are inherent, and it is especially uncommon for dynamic

adjectives to be other than inherent.

Syntactic classification

From a syntactic point of view, adjectives can be divided into three groups:

1) adjectives which can be used attributively and predicatively (a healthy

man – the man is healthy);

2) adjectives which can be used attributively only (a complete idiot – *the

idiot is complete);

3) adjectives which can be used predicatively only (*a loath man – the man

is loath to agree with it).

Attributive adjectives constitute two groups:

1) intensifying

;