Linguistic features of adjective phrases in english and in vietnamese

2018 – 2020 (1)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

M.A. THESIS
LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ADJECTIVE
PHRASES IN ENGLISH AND IN
VIETNAMESE
(Đặc điểm ngơn ngữ của cụm tính từ trong
tiếng Anh và trong tiếng Việt)

NGUYỄN THU HIỀN

NGUYỄN THU HIỀN

Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01

Hanoi – 2020

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS
LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ADJECTIVE

PHRASES IN ENGLISH AND IN
VIETNAMESE
(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của cụm tính từ trong
tiếng Anh và trong tiếng Việt)
NGUYỄN THU HIỀN

Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

Supervisor:

Hanoi, 2019

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “Linguistic features of adjective phrases in English and in
Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Master in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no
other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of
thesis.
Hanoi, 2019

NGUYỄN THU HIỀN

Approved by
SUPERVISOR
Dang Ngoc Huong, PhD

(Signature and full name)
Date:

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor – Ph.D. Dang
Ngoc Huong for her continuous support during the completion of my
dissertation, for his patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her
guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could
not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my master study.
Besides my advisor, I would like to thank all my lecturers at Hanoi Open
University for their enthusiasm and tremendous knowledge, and also for their
insightful comments and encouragement.
My sincere thanks are also for all of my friends and especially my beloved
parents for their unconditional loves and support during my study at Hanoi
Open University.

Hanoi, November 2019
Nguyen Thu Hien

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ABSTRACT
Although ranked second in terms of usage after Chinese, English is still the
language we can use in the widest range, in most countries. It is estimated that
1.5 billion people speak English globally, and about another billion are in the
process of learning it. This is why English is more beneficial than languages

that are less likely to be used. In general, knowing English will bring us many
benefits, opportunities such as being able to travel in English-speaking
countries, being able to find many documents in English, watching English
movies, having Attractive CV for employers, easy to apply for international
schools, etc. However, learning and using English is still a big problem for
learners because its syntax and semantic characteristics are different from the
syntax and semantic characteristics of the mother tongue, which is Vietnamese.
For the same reason, this essay is about “LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF
ADJECTIVE PHRASES IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE”, and
designed to answer questions about Syntactic and semantic features of
“adjective phrases” in English and in Vietnamese, to compare similarities and
differences. And to answer the mentioned questions, the researcher applied
qualitative research with six main methods such as descriptive method,
contrastive analysis method, synthesis method, document analysis method,
tabular method. The results show that English adjectives phrases in term of its
syntactic have 5 main functions such as pre-modifier of noun, post-modifier of
noun, subject predicative, object predicative and verb predicative. While,
Vietnamese adjective phrases function as the predicate, the adjunct, a
complement and the subject. From its features we can conclude that they have
some similarities and differences. In terms of semantics of adjective phrases,
there are almost no differences in English and Vietnamese; they denote
dimension/ size, physical property, speed, age, color, value, difficulty,
qualification, human propensity, similarity, shapes, smell, relationship between
noun and pronoun, the taste. The findings of this study has a big significance to
English teaching and learning and to translation from English to Vietnamese
and vice versa

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APPLICATIONS
Apps: adjective phrases
CA: contrastive analysis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY .................................................................. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................ iv
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... v
APPLICATIONS ................................................................................................ vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. ix
LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1
1.1. Rationale ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims and Objectives of the study ................................................................. 2
1.3. Research questions ........................................................................................ 2
1.4. Methods of the study ..................................................................................... 2
1.5. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 3
1.6. Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3
1.7. Organization of the study .............................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 6
2.1. Review of Previous Studies .......................................................................... 6
2.2. Review of Theoretical Background .............................................................. 6
2.2.1. Concepts of syntax ..................................................................................... 6
2.2.2. Concepts of semantics ................................................................................ 9
2.2.3. Theory of adjectives and adjective phrases in English ............................ 12
2.2.4. Theory of adjectives (tính từ) and adjective phrases (cụm tính từ) in

Vietnamese ......................................................................................................... 21
2.3. An overview of Contrastive Analysis ......................................................... 28
2.4. Summary ..................................................................................................... 29
CHAPTER 3.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................ 30
3.1. Research approach ...................................................................................... 30
3.3. Research methods........................................................................................ 32
3.4. Data collection and data analysis ................................................................ 34
3.5. Summary ..................................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER 4. SOME SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF
ADJECTIVE PHRASES IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE ................... 36
4.1. Linguistic features of adjective phrases in English and in Vietnamese ...... 36

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4.1.1. Syntactic features of “adjective phrases” in English and in Vietnamese. 36
4.1.2. Semantic features of “adjective phrases” in English and in Vietnamese. 39
4.2. A contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese adjectives phrases41
4.2.1. In terms of their syntactic functions ......................................................... 41
4.2.2. In terms of their Semantic functions ........................................................ 46
4.3. Summary ..................................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS......................................................................... 49
5.1. Recapitulation ............................................................................................. 49
5.2. Concluding remarks .................................................................................... 50
5.3. Implications on teaching, learning and translation ..................................... 51
5.3.1. For English teaching and learning ........................................................... 51
5.3.2. For translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa .................... 51
5.4. Limitations and suggestions for further studies .......................................... 51
5.4.1. Limitations ............................................................................................... 51
5.4.2. Suggestions for further studies ................................................................. 51

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 53
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................ 58

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Full Adjective Phrases Structures ............................................................17
Table 2.2: Examples of the Adjective Phrases ..........................................................18
Table 2.3: Position of adjectives in Vietnamese .......................................................23
Table 2.4: Translation for example ...........................................................................24
Table 2.5: The formation of an adjective phrase ......................................................26
Table 2.6: The adjective phrase in examples ............................................................26
Table 2.7: Full structure of the adjective phrases in Vietnamese .............................26
Table 4.8: Semantic types of adjectives ....................................................................39
Table 4.9: Semantic types of adjective phrases ........................................................39
Table 4.10: Semantics of adjective phrases based on Dixon theory in 1991 ............40
Table 4.11: A contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese adjectives
phrases in term of its syntax ......................................................................................44
Table 4.12: Table 11: A contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese
adjectives phrases in term of its semantics ...............................................................47
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Functional constituents of adjective phrases ..........................................18

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale

Any language in the world also serves the demand of communication of human
beings. However, each language has its origin, characteristics and values.
Nowadays, English has become the most widely used language all over the world. It
is considered as the means of communication in many different fields such as
science, technology, aviation, international sport, diplomacy, and so on. In fact,
with the spread of globalization and the rapid expansion of information and
technology, there has been an explosion in the demand for English worldwide.
As we know, English and Vietnamese are two different languages. Thus, in
communication or written documents, we have difficulties in expressing our ideas,
especially in transferring meanings of words, phrases from a language to another
one, in our case from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, we often use different
kinds of linguistic devices, one of which is adjective phrases.
Adjective and adjective phrases are parts of English language and play very
important role by changing or adding to their meaning. They are parts of speech and
written documents describing and modifying a noun and making a writing or
conversation more specific, relevant, and coherent.
There are many studies related to adjectives phrases, both in Vietnam and abroad. In
foreign studies, Anto, Sylvester Kwabena and Abraham Okrah studied “Exploring
the Syntax of the Mo / Deg Adjective phrase”; Kies, D. (1995) did study “adjectives
and adjective phrases” in his book “Modern English Grammar”; R and Greenbaum,
S. (1978) mentioned about “adjectives and adjective phrases” in the book “A
University Grammar of English”, etc. In Vietnam studies, Le Minh Trang studied
about "Semantic, Pragmatic and Cultural Features of “Nice” and Its Equivalents in
Vietnamese”, Lam Thuy Dung studied about "An Investigation into the
Intensification of Adjectives in English and in Vietnamese”", etc, however, there
has not been any study focusing on research and comparison of adjectives phrases
in English and Vietnamese.

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In order to have a general look about the adjective phrases of English as well as of
Vietnamese and to understand the characteristics of them, I decide to research the
topic “Linguistic Features of Adjective Phrases in English and in Vietnamese”
with the hope of contributing the necessary background to the learning and teaching
of English, especially giving learners a general view in achieving effective
communication and translation.
1.2. Aims and Objectives of the study
Even though so far there have been a number of documents and materials in
reference to English adjective phrases in English, this study aims to give a detailed
account of linguistic features of adjective phrases in English and adjective phrases
in Vietnamese. It also attempts to compare adjective phrases in English and those in
Vietnamese and on the basis of the comparison, the thesis goes on to offer some
pedagogical implications concerning the teaching and learning adjective phrases for
Vietnamese learners. In specific, objectives of the study are:
 To point out the syntactic features of adjective phrases in English and
adjective phrases in Vietnamese;
 To find out the semantic features of adjective phrases in English and
adjective phrases in Vietnamese;
 To offer some pedagogical implications.
1.3. Research questions
1. What are the syntactic features of adjective phrases in English and adjective
phrases in Vietnamese?
2. What are the semantic features of adjective phrases in English and adjective
phrases in Vietnamese?
3. What are the implications concerning the teaching and learning of adjective
phrases in English for Vietnamese learners?
1.4. Methods of the study
This study used descriptive analytical method is used for the research. The
researcher will collect data on all resources and making the Corpus for analyzing.

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Corpus linguistics is a research approach that has developed over the past few
decades to support empirical investigations of language variation and use, resulting
in research findings which have much greater generalizability and validity than
would otherwise be feasible (Biber, 2009).
Moreover, the objectives of the research are not only to find out the linguistic
features but also to compare the use of those features between English and
Vietnamese equivalent. Therefore, the compare and contrast method will also be
employed in order to compare the similarities and differences in the way
Vietnamese and English people use adjective phrases.
1.5. Scope of the study
This study is limited in investigating the linguistic features of adjective phrases in
English and adjective phrases in Vietnamese. In other words, the thesis investigates
adjective phrases in English as the source language and their translated meanings as
the target language in order to find out the similarities and differences in word order
and their uses. In order to investigate English adjective phrases effectively, the
thesis attempts to study adjective phrases in sentence structures so that their
syntactic and semantic features could be fully described and analyzed.
Due to the limited time and ability of the researcher, the data served for this study is
collected mainly from written documents such as bilingual grammar books, novels,
stories and websites, etc… although adjective phrases in English and adjective
phrases in Vietnamese are used in both spoken and written literature.
1.6. Significance of the study
Theoretically, the study presents previous materials of English researchers, papers,
articles. As the same time, the study also shows the methods to improve linguistic
features used with adjective phrases.
The syntactic and semantic function’s categories in the two languages always have

similarities and differences. It will get mislead for learners if they cannot distinguish
the differences in the classification, the position, the functions, many meanings of
this categories. It is, therefore, essential for teachers to have better solutions to limit

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the misleading. After the research, it is hoped that the result will be helpful to
provide:
 Input for Vietnamese learners of English about different aspects of adjectives
especially their syntactic and semantic functions
 Input for foreign learners of Vietnamese about different aspects of adjectives
especially their syntactic and semantic functions
 Input for teachers of English with teaching implications
This study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in adjectives in English.
Practically, the research findings will enhance the understanding of English learners
regarding the use of adjective phrases in English and Vietnamese, facilitating their
real-life communication.
1.7. Organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters.
 Chapter 1: Introduction. This chapter outlines the background of the study. In
this chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the
rationale, aims, scopes, method, and design of the study.
 Chapter 2: Theoretical Background. This chapter can be considered a slight
overview of some previous researches on the similar subject both in English
and Vietnamese. At the same time, it gives a theoretical background to this
study with theoretical preliminaries directly related to the investigation of
linguistic features of adjective phrases in English and Vietnamese.
 Chapter 3: Research Methodology – refers to the researching approach of the
study and the method to collect and analyze the collected data to help the

author achieve the best results in the study.
 Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion. In this chapter, the author summarizes
her findings after analyzed the corpus which she was collected, then the
researcher will discuss on the analyzing results of linguistic features of
adjective phrases used in English and and adjective phrases in Vietnamese.

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 Chapter 5: Conclusions - which provides the recapitulations, conducting
remarks, limitations and implications of the study in using effectively and
appropriately adjective phrases in English and and adjective phrases in
Vietnamese, and suggestions for further studies.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Review of Previous Studies
In English, there have been diverse adjectives and adjective phrases whose
frequency of use is very high. Anto, Sylvester Kwabena and Abraham Okrah
studied “Exploring the Syntax of the Mo / Deg Adjective phrase”. Huddleston and
Pullum (2002) judged that “adjectives and adjective phrases” can, in fact, be found
in almost every sentence of whatever length. Besides, “adjectives and adjective
phrases” are found in the textbook “Basic English Grammar” of Sargeant (2007).
Haegeman and Wekker (1985) studied about “English Syntax”. Kies, D. (1995) did
study “adjectives and adjective phrases” in his book “Modern English Grammar”.
Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S. (1978) mentioned about “adjectives and adjective
phrases” in the book “A University Grammar of English”. Alexander, L.G. (1992)

was also interested in this subject, he stated in the book “Longman English
Grammar”. Similarly, Sargeant, H. (2007) did also research about “adjectives and
adjective phrases”, the author mentioned it in “English Grammar”. Yule, G. (1985)
also talked about them in his book “The Study of Language”. Furthermore,
Radford, A (2004) wrote in his book “English Syntax: An Introduction”. Biber, D.
et al (1999) mentioned in “Grammar of Spoken and Written English”.
In Vietnamese, there are also many studies on adjectives and adjective phrases. A
Study of “Semantic, Pragmatic and Cultural Features of “Nice” and Its Equivalents
in Vietnamese” by Le Minh Trang, “An Investigation into the Intensification of
Adjectives in English and in Vietnamese” by Lam Thuy Dung, A Study on the
“Linguistic Features of the Adjective “Bad” in English and its Vietnamese
Equivalents” by Tran Thi Thu Giang, .
2.2. Review of Theoretical Background
2.2.1. Concepts of syntax
In English linguistics, in “Grammar and Composition textbooks” of Richard
Nordquist, syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine
to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It's the concept that enables people to know

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things like adjectives generally come before the nouns they describe (green chair),
how to start a question with a question word (What is that?), that subjects often
come before verbs in non-question sentences (She jogged.), prepositional phrases
start with prepositions (to the store), helping verbs come before main verbs (can go,
will do), and so on. He means that semantic features as the basic units of meaning in
a word. The meanings of words may be described as combination of semantic
features.
According to Chomsky (1966), syntax theory is an investigation on the rules which
govern the sentences’ formation. The syntactic structure is the arrangement of

words and their morphemes together in order to forming a sentence/ a phrase and
clauses. In other words, syntax is a set of rules on how words from our speech/
dialog/ conversation can be conveyed to transfer/deliver a complete thought.
From another perspective, R.M.W. Dixon (1991) said that syntax guilds on how to
combine words together, syntax deals with the way in which words are combined
together. Syntax is understood to be the 7 theory of the structure of sentences in a
language. This view has its direct antecedents in the theory of immediate
constituents, in which the function of syntax is to mediate between the observed
forms of a sentence and its meaning.
Syntax structures are analyzable into arrangements of syntactic types or syntactic
classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships and
linguistic items have with other items in a construction (Brown & Miller, 1996).
Syntax studies the rules of combining words and phrases into expressive structures
in sentences in natural language (Santorini, Beatrice, and Anthony Kroch, 2007).
There are two main syntax systems: VO (verb-object) and OV (object-object). In
these systems, there are sub-systems related to the position of the subject.
Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and object are
probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language. However,
just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to
language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are noticeable. (A.E. Kibrik,
2001).

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Linda Thomas (1993) stated that languages are by nature extremely complex and
describing a language, any language is not an easy task. Syntax seeks to describe
the way words fit together to form sentences or utterances. Syntax or sentence
structure concerns with the way words combine together in a language to form
sentences. Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and

object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language.
However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from
language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked.
Syntax is a set of rules in language. It dictates how words from different parts of
speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought
Bloomfield (1994), he states “we could not understand the form of a language if we
merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents”. He argued that
in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how
individual constituents such words and morphemes constitute more complex forms.
Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which
words are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language. Syntax,
which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language and the
relationships between words. In other words, morphology deals with word
formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence
formation out of words. Syntax structures are analyzable into sequences of syntactic
categories or syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic
relationships and linguistic items have with other items in a construction. Every
language has a limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and object are
probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language. However,
just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to
language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked. He claimed that:
if you want to understand well the meaning of a sentence, it is essential to identify
how every single element such as words and morphemes establish more complex
forms.

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In Vietnamese language, syntax studies the rules of combining words into phrases
and sentences. Syntax studies grammatical structures, grammatical relations and

means of expressing grammatical relations. The syntax function is involved in
sentence structure. Words can stand at one or some certain positions in the sentence,
or they can be exchanged for each other at that position and indicate a syntax
function relationship with other components in the sentence structure to be the word
- classified. However, since often a word can hold many syntactic functions in a
sentence, it is important to consider which syntax function of the word is essential
for classification purposes. For example, words that mean things often act as
subjects and complements; while the words just work, the state usually makes the
predicate ... In terms of the syntactic function of the adjective, the adjective is
usually the predicate in the sentence.
Concepts about syntax show the researcher how they are related to the study of the
researcher. In particular, they are phrase elements and syntactic functions together
in the phrase.
2.2.2. Concepts of semantics
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic
analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally
mean, rather than on what an individual speaker.
According to Evan and McDowell (1976), language is a means of communication,
and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations,
giving information, and other things to make social relationship. Human beings
have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make
meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings. They
communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their
thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what
they would like to happen, and a lot more.
Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of the relations of signs to the
objects to which the signs are applicable. And then he revises his definition, saying
that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign

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in all modes of signifying. Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics. He says
that descriptive semantics (i.e. the investigation of the meaning of expressions in
“historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics. The
reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that he
believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable
in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or context.
According to Hurford and Heasley (1984), “semantics is the study of meaning in
language”. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, like words, phrase, signs,
and symbols and what they stand for, their denotation. Linguistic semantics is the
study of meaning that is used for understanding human expression through
languages. Other form of semantics includes the semantics of programing
languages, formal logics and semiotics. Semantic is that level of linguistic analysis
where the meaning is analyzed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis,
since we cannot see or observe the meaning as we can record and observe sounds.
Meaning is related very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to
understand. We cannot accept a sentence as meaningful if it is illogical and does not
communicate anything.
For example:
 Monday came before the day which followed it.


This is a circular statement which tells us nothing.

Then there are contradictory statements, which are false in meaning. Such as:
 My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.


This statement is absurd- because a person cannot be both married and

unmarried.
Hurford and Heasley (1984) also stated: “The giving of information is itself an act
of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships”.
According to Leech (1984) in practice, the problem of distinguishing language and
language use has centered on a boundary dispute between semantics and
pragmatics.

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Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987) state that “the study of meaning is
semantics. Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of
words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in
discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”
David Crystal (1992) defines that “semantics is the study of meaning in language”.
Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the study of
meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such
as synonymy and antonyms. In generative grammar, the semantic component is a
major area of the grammar’s organization, assigning a semantic representation to
sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features.
In the preface of Linguistic semantics: An introduction‖, John Lyons (1995) defines
that semantics is the study of meaning in language‖. It is systematically encoded in
the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages. This definition of linguistic
semantics, as far as it goes, is relatively uncontroversial. But it is also almost wholly
uninformative unless and until one goes on to say, first, what one means by
meaning‖ and, second, what exactly is meant by encoded‖ in this context. He also
explains that those who draw a terminological distinction between semantics and
pragmatics and take narrower view of meaning than he does will see his book as
introduction to a broader field of linguistic semantics and pragmatics.

Although every author has their own expression about linguistic semantics, all
authors would agree with Kreidler’s definition (1998) that “Linguistic semantics is
the study of how languages organize and express meanings”.
Nowadays, there are two ways of approaching semantics. The formal semantics
tries to describe the meaning of language using the descriptive apparatus of formal
logic. The goal is to describe natural language in a formal, precise, unambiguous
way. The other approach to semantics we could call psychologically-oriented
semantics or cognitive semantics. This approach does not consider the logical
structure of language as important for the description of the meaning of language,
and tends to disregard notions such as truth-values or strict compositionality.
Cognitive semantics tries to explain semantic phenomena by appealing to

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biological, psychological and even cultural issues. They are less concerned with
notions of reference and try to propose explanations that will fit with everything
that we know about cognition, including perception and the role of the body in the
structuring of meaning structures.
Semantics defined in “The study of language” by George Yule is the study of the
meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis, there is always an
attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a
speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion. Also, linguistic
semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words and
sentences of a language.
The concepts found in semantics are related to the semantic study of adjective
phrases in this thesis. They describe about dimension/ size, physical property,
speed, age, color, value, difficulty, qualification, human propensity, similarity,
shapes, smell, relationship between noun and pronoun, the taste.
2.2.3. Theory of adjectives and adjective phrases in English

2.2.3.1. Adjectives in English
An adjective is a part of speech that describes and modifies a noun, to make a
writing or conversation more specific, relevant, and coherent. The word “adjective”
has been derived from the Latin word adjectīvum, which means “additional.”
Adjectives are words used to modify nouns or pronouns. To modify is to specify the
exact meaning of another word. As a modifier, the adjective does not change the
basic meaning of the word it modifies: ‘a black dog’ is still a dog. The modifier,
‘black’, merely tells us something more specific about the word it modifies.
Adjectives modify a noun or pronoun by describing, limiting or making its meaning
more nearly exact. Adjectives may be more than one word.
An adjective modifies, quantifies, and even transforms the things, ideas, places, and
even incidents referred to in the sentence, making them unique and individual. It
generally appears before a noun or a pronoun, modifying it to shed more light on its
specific characteristics. For instance, “This isn’t a romance. You’re not a damsel in
distress and I’m not the handsome prince come to save you” (Captive in the Dark,

12


by C.J Roberts). Here, the adjective “handsome” has modified the noun “prince,”
making it clear which prince the writer is referring to.
Adjectives are usually defined by their distribution, that is, where they can occur in
word strings. They are characteristically found in two places: first, in an attributive
position within a noun phrase and a predicative position (Quirlc and Greenbaum,
2008).
From the point of view of Quirk et al (1980), four features are generally considered
to be characteristic of adjectives:
1. They can freely occur in attributive position, that is, they can pre-modify a noun
as “the lazy teacher”, “the little boy”.
2. They can occur in a predicative position. Which means they can function as an

object or subject complement, e.g. ‘reasonable’ in ‘the man seemed reasonable’.
3. They can be pre-modified by the intensifier ‘very’. e.g. “the men are very
enthusiastic”
4. They can take comparative and superlative forms with inflection or by the
addition of the pre- modifiers ‘more’ or ‘most’
For example:
“They are happier now”.
“They are the happiest couple I know.”
“She is more beautiful than Jane”.
“They are the most colorful flowers I have ever seen.”
According to Geoffrey Finch (2000), adjectives are words which specify the
attributes of nouns. Typically, they give information about the size, color, shape and
appearance of entities.
According to Huong and Loan (2015) in the book “Giai thich ngu phap”, in English
language, if there are many adjectives appear in a sentence, they can be followed
these suggesting orders:
 Adjectives indicating feelings (nice, beautiful, etc.) usually precede
descriptive adjectives (new, large, round, wooden, etc.)
For example:

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A nice long summer holiday
An interesting young man
 Adjectives that indicate the size and length (big, tall, long, etc.) usually
precede the adjectives of shape and width (round, fat, wide, etc.)
For example:
A tall thin girl
A long narrow street

 When there are 2 or more adjectives of color we use "and"
For example:
A black and white dress
A red, white and green flag
 When two or more descriptive adjectives are used in a sentence, their order is
arranged as follows:
1) Number
2) Quality
3) Size
4) Age
5) Color
6) Origin or country
7) Material
8) Noun
For example:
A small black plastic bag
An Old Russian song
As we know, there are many classifications of English adjectives. However, the
writer based on Dixon’s View (1991) classifies English adjectives more
categorically. In terms of their usage classification, English adjectives are divided
into ten types as follows: dimension, physical property, speed, age, color, value,
difficulty, qualification, human propensity, and similarity.

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Regarding semantic functions of English adjectives, according to Quirk et al (1973),
stative adjectives denote “a state or condition, which may generally be consider
permanent” such as big, red, tall, etc. In contrast, dynamic adjectives denote
attributes which are, to some extent at least, “under the control of the one who

possesses them”. For instance, brave denotes an attribute which may not always be
in evidence (as unlike red), but which may be called upon as it is required. For this
reason, it is appropriate to use it in an imperative. According to L. G. Alexander
(1988) adjectives can be also divided into gradable and non- gradable. Gradable
adjectives mean “a large class of words which can be graded, or in other words,
they can be modified by intensifiers and include comparison such as very young,
young, younger, the youngest. An adjective is gradable when we can imagine
degrees in the quality referred to and so can use it with words like very, too and
enough or when we can form a comparative and superlative from it as big, bigger,
biggest, etc. Non- gradable adjectives are a small class that cannot be graded or in
other words, principally technical adjectives and adjectives denoting provenance
such as atomic, hydrochloric, British and an adjective is non- gradable when we
cannot modify it, it means that we cannot use it with very, too and We cannot make
a comparative or superlative from it such as daily, dead, medical, unique, etc.
2.2.3.2 Adjective phrases in English
2.2.3.2.1. Definition of the phrase in English
A phrase is a group (or pairing) of words in English. A phrase can be short or long,
but it does not include the subject-verb pairing necessary to make a clause.
According to John Eastwood in his book “Oxford guide to English grammar”, there
are some kinds of phrases in English, which include:
 Prepositional phrases: after the meal, on time, underneath the sagging yellow
couch, from eating too much, after lunch, on the aircraft, etc.
 Noun phrases: the nice neighbor, a great English teacher, a cat that refused to
meow, the shoplifted pair of jeans, a good flight, his crew, etc.
 Verb phrases: were waiting for the movie, had cleaned, should have been
writing, must wash, etc.

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 Adjective phrases: very delicious, very good, smarter than me, unbelievably
difficult, very late, etc.
 Adverb phrase: quickly, almost certainly, etc.
None of these examples contains a subject doing an action (subject-verb).
Therefore, each example is merely a group of words called a phrase. A phrase will
always be more than one word.
2.2.3.2.2. Definition of Adjective phrases in English
Base on the website “yourdictionary.com”, “adjective phrases” act just like
adjectives. They modify, describe, or give more information about a noun or
pronoun. For example: “The very small kitten jumped at the big dog.” Other
adjectival phrases modify the predicate of the sentence, for instance: “Extra buttons
came with the coat.” Adjective phrases can also modify objects and will follow the
word they are modifying, for example: “My new kitten makes me very happy.”
And Biber, D. et al (1999) mentioned that adjective phrases contain an adjective as
head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the form of single words, phrases,
and clauses. The adjective head is in bold in the following example: “so luck, good
enough”.
And the following definition of adjective phrases by Sargeant, H (2007) Phrases can
be used like single adjectives to describe nouns and pronouns. Phrases that are used
in this way are called adjective phrases. Most adjective phrases come after the word
they describe. Look at these examples. The adjective phrases are in italic and the
nouns they describe are in bold “Who is the girl with long hair?” Some adjective
phrases come before the word they describe. The words in these phrases are often
joined with hyphens: a long-legged bird, an eight-year-old child, etc.
In his book “Phrases, Clauses and Sentences”, George Davison (2002) mentioned
that an adjective phrase is any phrase that has an adjective as its head and that can
occupy the same position as a single adjective in a noun phrase or fill the same slot
as a single adjective in a sentence. For example "Her behavior was absolutely
unbelievable"; “We considered her behavior completely unacceptable."

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