It is hard to imagine Russian without an adjective. By designating a feature of an object, this part of speech makes human speech imaginative and accurate.
In total there are three
categories of adjectives: qualitative, relative and possessive. Each of these groups has its own characteristics and functions, which we will not dwell on in the framework of this article. Let’s talk in detail about such a
grammatical feature as the form - full or short.
Short forms of adjectives and their features
Actually, the presence of a “truncated” variant is that “litmus test” that determines the type of adjective. The possessive and relative have no such hypostasis. In the form of an unstable morphological character, it is present only in qualitative ones.
Today, the short form of adjectives, although it exists, is becoming less common every year.
Few people know that in the Proto-Slavic language adjectives did not have complete
form, it formed much later. Recall examples from
folklore. Tales, proverbs and sayings give us many such examples: “Mila is not white”, “beautiful girl”, “good fellows”, etc.
The short form of adjectives may be close in lexical meaning to the full. They differ only in questions and endings. For example: children (what?) Are obedient (full.f.), children (what?) Are obedient (kr.f.)
But the short form of adjectives sometimes differs from its full equivalent in semantic connotation. So, the word "sick" indicates the present, and "sick" - a more permanent sign. Sometimes the forms of the same word generally have different interpretations.
Compare:
- The weather has been clear for a week now.
- The task became clear after talking with colleagues.
In the second case, we see an obvious metaphor that does not have a direct semantic parallel with the first word. Also, the short form of adjectives may indicate an excessive manifestation of the sign:
- motley (multi-colored) parrot;
- motley clothes (very bright, noteworthy).
Some words are generally used only in short form: “glad”, “ready”, “capable”, and so on. This is due to the fact that these tokens have lost their semantic connection with their full counterparts.
Unlike adjectives in full form, short ones often specify the attribute in connection with the fact of their manifestation:
- short haircut (can be for any person);
- trousers are short (to a specific person).
The syntactic role of short adjectives
In the sentence, the “truncated” form acts exclusively in the role of a compound nominal predicate. If full adjectives can be almost any member of a sentence, brief ones have only one role:
The Oak is mighty (cf. - predicate)
A mighty (full f.– definition) oak stands under the window.
The short form of the adjective may carry a verb connective, which most often indicates time:
She was chatty. (past time)
The wall will be strong. (w / w)
As we can see, the role of short adjectives in the language is quite large. Firstly, they can express both lexical shades of the full form and exist independently, designating a separate concept. Secondly, the presence or possibility of the formation of this form indicates that we have a high-quality adjective. Thirdly, the syntactic role of such words is unambiguous - in the sentence they fulfill the function of the predicate.