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164
-ary
-ed
-en
-que
-fold
-ful
-ic
-id
-ish
-ive
-less
-like
-ly
-most
-ory
-ous
-some
-y
documentary
beaded, barbed
wooden, silken, shrunken
picturesque
twofold, manifold
careful, sinful
pessimistic, atomic
torpid, morbid
feverish, bluish
effective, distinctive
careless, spotless
manlike, warlike
kindly, weekly, homely
uttermost
observatory
glorious
lonesome, troublesome
handy, messy
Some adjectives are former participles and therefore retain participial suffixes: charming, interesting,
cunning, daring.
The suffixes -ly, -ed, -ful, -ary, -al, -y are not confined to adjectives only. Thus, many adverbs are derived
from adjectives hy means of the suffix -ly (strongly, bitterly, quickly). Most of the verbs form their past tense
and participle II with -ed. There are many nouns with the suffixes -al (festival, scandal, criminal), -ary
(boundary, missionary), -ful (mouthful, handful), -y (sonny, doggy), etc.
Compound adjectives consist of at least two stems. They may be of several patterns:
a) consisting of a noun + an adjective:
colour-blind, grass-green;
b) consisting of an adjective + an adjective:
deaf-mute;
c) consisting of an adverb + a participle:
well-known, newly-repaired, much-praised;
d) Consisting of a noun/pronoun + a verbal:
all-seeing, heart-breaking, high-born, high-flown, man-made;
e) consisting of an adjective/adverb + a noun + the suffix -ed:
blue-eyed, long-legged, fair-haired, down-hearted.
Morphological characteristics
§ 209. Adjectives in English do not take any endings to express agreement with the head-word.
The only pattern of morphological change is that of degrees of comparison, which is possible only for
descriptive qualitative adjectives the meaning of which is compatible with the idea of gradation of quality.
There are three grades of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The superlative is generally
used with the definite article. Ways of formation may be synthetic, analytic, and suppletive
(irregular). The synthetic way is by adding the inflection -er, -est, as fine -finer - finest. This means is found
with monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives in which the stress falls on the last syllable:
1) full - fuller - fullest