Selasa, 19 Agustus 2014

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives


Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun: 
 
 
 
the blue sea~ the sea is blue
the old man~ the man is old
happy children~ the children are happy
 Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.  
Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions: 
    the Governor General  
    the Princess Royal  
    times past 
We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun: 
    something useful  
    everyone present  
    those responsible 
Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives: 
    the shortest route possible  
    the worst conditions imaginable  
    the best hotel available 
Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive and the predicative positions. However, a small number of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For example, the adjective main (themain reason) can only occur in the attributive position (predicative: *the reason is main). Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child wasafraid) can only occur predicatively (attributive: *an afraid child).   

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar