8. Parts of speech
8.4. Adjectives and adverbs
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.
base form | comparative | superlative |
happy | happi-er | happiest |
black | black-er | black-est |
good | better | best |
quiet | quiet-er | quiet-est |
intelligent | more intelligent | most intelligent |
beautiful | more beautiful | most beautiful |
Derivation of adjectives
Some common derivational morphemes that apply to adjectives are listed in (x)
(1) | a. | -ing | the dancing cat |
b. | -ive | indicative | |
c. | -able | readable | |
d. | -al | traditional | |
e. | -ate | intimate | |
f. | -ish | childish | |
g. | -some | tiresome | |
h. | -(i)an | reptilian | |
i. | -ful | wishful | |
j. | -less | selfless | |
k. | -ly | friendly | |
l. | un- | unhappy |
(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.
facilitative adjective | English | break | → | break-able |
Basque | jan ‘eat’ | → | jan-garri ‘edible’ | |
agentive adjective | English | → | ||
Spanish | habla-r ‘talk’ | → | habla-dor ‘talkative’ |
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.
relational (= ‘related to N’) adjective | English | → | ||
Russian | korol’ ‘king’ | → | korol-evskij ‘royal’ | |
proprietive (= ‘having N’) adjective | English | wonder | → | wonder-ful |
Ponapean | pihl ‘water’ | → | pil-en ‘watery’ | |
privative (= ‘lacking N’) adjective | English | peanut | → | peanut-free |
Russian | vod-a ‘water’ | → | bez-vod-nyj ‘waterless’ | |
material adjective | English | wood | → | wood-en |
German | Kupfer ‘copper’ | → | kupfer-n ‘made of copper’ |
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.
attenuative adjective | English | → | ||
Tzutujil | kaq ‘red’ | → | kaq-koj ‘reddish’ | |
intensive adjective | English | → | ||
Turkish | yeni ‘new’ | → | yep-yeni ‘brand new’ | |
negative adjective | English | → | ||
German | schön ‘beautiful’ | → | un-schön ‘ugly’ |
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.
One category or two?
You may be familiar with the idea of complementary distribution from phonology, where a complementary distribution pattern can be used to argue that two segments are allophones of the same phoneme. When two kinds of things are in complementary distribution, this can be used as evidence that they are actually variants of a single category.
Adjectives and adverbs also have many things in common:
- They both describe as their basic functions, although adjectives typically describe nouns while adverbs describe clauses, verbs, and other adjectives.
- They both can take the derivational morpheme -ly (compare the adjective friend-ly to the adverb quick-ly).
- They both can appear in the comparative form.
Because of these reasons, it has been proposed that they are two subcategories of one bigger category, A. However, most morphosyntacticians continue to distinguish them, and so we will, as well.
Key takeaways
- Adjectives may inflect into comparative and superlative forms, and adverbs may have a comparative form.
- There are many derivational morphemes that form adjectives from verbs, nouns, and other adjectives.
- Adverbs can be formed out of adjectives with the derivational morpheme -ly.
- In English, adjectives appear in between determiners and nouns or after the copula BE. Adverbs can appear anywhere except where adjectives can appear.
Check yourself!
When the distributions of two elements are opposites. Each element always appears in contexts the other element can never appear in.