As with the other parts of speech, adjectives and adverbs can be identified based on their morphological and syntactic distribution.

Adjectives

Inflection on adjectives

Many adjectives inflect into comparative and superlative forms. The comparative means to a greater degree, while the superlative means to the utmost degree. Some examples of adjective paradigms are shown in Table 1. In English, shorter words tend to take the comparative suffix -er and the superlative suffix -est, while longer words use more and most periphrastically.

Derivation of adjectives

Some common derivational morphemes that apply to adjectives are listed in (x)

(adapted from Carnie 2021: 48)

Cross-linguistically, derivational morphemes that form adjectives commonly come from verbs, nouns, or other adjectives. Two common types of deverbal adjectives (V –> A), shown with examples in Table 1, are adjectives that describe the verbal action as possible, called the facilitative, or that attribute the verbal action as typical of a person, called the agentive.

Some common kinds of denominal adjectives (N –> A) are shown in Table 2. Relational adjectives are adjectives that describe relatedness to the noun. Proprietive adjectives describe having the property of the noun. Privative adjectives describe the lack of the noun. Finally, material adjectives describe the material something is made of.

Some common kinds of deadjectival adjectives (A –> A), shown in Table 3, include attenuative adjectives, which create a weaker form of the adjective; intensive adjectives, which create a stronger form of the adjective, and negative adjectives, which create a negative form of the adjective.

Syntactic distribution of adjectives

Adjectives typically modify nouns, and so their distribution can often be described with respect to nouns and other things that modify nouns. In English, adjectives come before nouns, but after determiners.

(2) a. the happy child

b. a blue book

c. that long drive

Adjectives can also appear in copular constructions, following the verb BE. Watch out, though nouns, verbs, and prepositions can also appear following BE!

(3) a. The child will be happy.

b. The book is blue.

c. That drive was long.

Adjectives can be modified by adverbs, so their distribution can also be described with respect to adverbs. Adjectives in English typically follow the adverbs that describe them.

(4) a. very quick

b. so happy

c. more readable

Adverbs

Inflection on adverbs

Adverbs don’t take much inflection, although they can occasionally be used comparatively with the word more, as in (5).

(5) She ran the race more quickly than I did.

Derivation of adverbs

Many adverbs in English use the suffix -ly.

Syntactic distribution of adverbs

Adverbs can occur in many different locations, including at the beginning or end of the clause, as in (6).

(6) a. Unfortunately, I dropped my ice cream at the park.

b. I dropped my ice cream at the park, unfortunately.

Adverbs can also modify adjectives, as well as other adverbs. For example, in (7a), the adverb very modifies the adjective happy. In (7b), the adverb so modifies the adverb very.

(7) a. very happy

b. so very happy

Adverbs can also modify verbs, usually appearing at the beginning or end of the verb phrase.

(8) a. I quickly went to the store.

b. I went to the store quickly.

In fact, adverbs can appear in so many positions that it may be easier to describe where they can’t appear. They cannot appear in between determiners and nouns, as in (9a), and they cannot appear after copula BE, as in (9b).

(9) a. *the quickly dog

b. *This dog is quickly.

You may have noticed something about this distribution—it is the opposite of the distribution of adjectives. In other words, the distribution of adjectives and adverbs are in complementary distribution.

Check yourself!