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25/2/2016
UEfAP Grammar: Introduction Adjectives
UEfAP Grammar: Introduction Adjectives
Grammar in EAP
Adjectives & Adjectival Groups
Adjectives are words such as “beautiful”, “ugly”, “new” or “old”. They usually denote qualities or
have a descriptive meaning. The most typical position for an adjective is between a determiner and
a noun. Typical forms of adjective endings are: “able/ible”, “ish/like”, “ful/less”, “ous” or “y”.
Adjectives may display inflection for degree: “er” & “est”. They have two main functions: as
modifiers of nouns in nominal groups, and as head of an adjectival group.
An adjectival group is typically a group with an adjective as its Head. That adjective is likely to be
modified either before the adjective (premodification) or after the adjective (postmodification or
qualification) or both. Premodifier are always adverbs "e.g. extremely, rather, too, very". Post
modifiers are often adverbs, prepositional phrases or certain types of clause. For example, in the
adjectival group “very difficult indeed”, “difficult” is an adjective in the head position. It is premodified
by “very” and postmodified or qualified by “indeed”.
Adjectives and adjectival groups are commonly used in academic texts (Biber, Johansson, Leech,
Conrad & Finegan, 1999, p. 506).
Exercise
Try this exercise in identifying adjectives: Grammar: Adjectives Exercise
Adjectives or adjectival groups can be used either attributively (e.g. the big house) or predicatively/as
complements (e.g. the house is big)
Adjectival groups are commonly used attributively as pre or postmodifiers of nouns in nominal
groups.
For example:
as premodifier the constitutional aspects
as postmodifier – varieties common in India, the festival proper, something different
See: Attributive adjectives: Grammar: Attributive Adjectives
Complex adjectival groups used as complements are common in academic writing.