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168
These noun-phrases are very similar to compounds and some of them are spelt as a compound, with a
hyphen (knight-errant, postmaster-general). The plural ending is attached either to the first element, or to the
second:
court-martials
postmaster-generals
courts-martial
postmasters-general
Postmodification may be due to the structural complexity of postmodifiers (the children easiest to teach, the
climate peculiar to this country), or to the presence of only or all in preposition (the only actor suitable, the
only person visible, all the money available).
2. Beside their usual function, that of modifying nouns, adjectives may be combined with other words in the
sentence.
They may be modified by adverbials of degree, like very, quite, that, rather, most, a lot, a sort of, a bit,
enough, totally, perfectly, so... as: very long, a bit lazy, sort of naive, far enough, a little bit tired, a most
beautiful picture, not so foolish as that, she is not that crazy.
The adverb very can combine only with adjectives denoting the gradable properties. Thus it is possible to say very
tired (tiredness may be of different degree), but it is impossible to say *very unknown, *very ceaseless, *very unique, as
these adjectives do not allow of gradation.
With the adverb too the indefinite article is placed between the adjective and the head-noun. With the adverb rather
the article is placed after it:
This is too difficult a problem to solve at once.
This is rather a complicated matter.
3. Predicative adjectives are combined with the link verbs to
be, to
seem, to appear, to look, to turn, or
notional verbs in a double predicate:
He looks tired. She does not seem so crazy as before. She is quite healthy. She felt faint. If sounded rather
fussy. The food tasted good. The flowers smell sweet.
Syntactic functions
§ 212. Adjectives may have different functions in the sentence.
The most common are those of an attribute or a predicative.
The attributes (premodifying and postmodifying) may be closely attached to their head-words (o good boy,
the delegates present), or they may be loose (detached) (Clever and ambitious, he schemed as well as he could).
In the first case the adjective forms a group with the noun it modifies; in the second case the adjective forms a
sense-group separate from the head-word and the other parts of the sentence. A detached attribute is therefore
separated by a comma from its head-word if it adjoins it, or from other parts of the sentence if it is distant from
the head-word. As predicatives, adjectives may form a part of a compound nominal or double predicate (he
was alone, the window was open. Old Jolyon sat alone, the dog went mad). Predicative adjectives may be
modified by adverbials of manner, degree, or consequence and by clauses, forming long phrases as, in:
He is not so foolish as to neglect it.
She is not so crazy as you may imagine.
It is not as simple as you think.
Adjectives may also function as objective or subjective predicatives in complex constructions:
We consider him reliable.
I can drink coffee hot.
He pushed the door open.
Better eat the apples fresh.
objects + objective predicatives