Adjective ranks: general concept and features of meaning, change and use

The adjective name in Russian is a part of speech, the main function of which is to designate a non-procedural attribute of an object (as opposed to a participle, which indicates an attribute of an object by action). Adjectives can vary in cases and numbers, and in the singular form - also by gender, and are also classified by special lexical and grammatical groups - categories. Thus, the categories of adjectives are three large groups combining words that are similar in meaning and in the way they designate a feature of an object. Adjective names belonging to each of the categories have their own characteristics of change and use. Let's talk about this in more detail below, and below is a summary table.

Adjective Numbers

Qualitative adjectives: features of meaning, change and use

High-quality adjectives are a lexical and grammatical category that combines words denoting the quality of an object, that is, a sign that can manifest itself to one degree or another, to a greater or lesser extent, for example: an expensive doll, a beautiful girl, a poor artist, a talented actor . High-quality adjectives, in addition to changes in cases, childbirth and numbers, are also able to form short forms, degrees of comparison and be combined with the adverb “very”. Other categories of adjectives (relative and possessive) do not have these characteristics.

Short Formation

The short form is formed from the complete and has a close semantic connection with it: close - tight, tight, tight; beautiful - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful; harmful - harmful, harmful, harmful . There are a number of adjectives that once in the Russian language had both a full and a short form, but today they are used only in a short one, for example: glad, love, much, should others.

It is noteworthy that, historically, the short form of the adjective is considered basic, initial, and in the initial stages of the development of the language, the full form was formed from the short. Today, with the formation of a short form, alternation or loss of vowels can be observed: green - green, green, green; sharp - sharp, cutting, cutting . Adjectives in short form vary in numbers and by gender (singular), but are not inclined. In a sentence, as a rule, they fulfill the function of a predicate: In this dress, the countess was unusually beautiful.

Grade comparison

Comparative and superlative degrees of comparison are an illustration of how clearly and fully expressed this quality is in the subject: dad is good - better - best; talented artist - more talented than the other - talented . Recall that other categories of adjectives indicate the attribute of an object as permanent, not capable of gradation.

The degrees of comparison can be formed both synthetically - suffixively ( expensive - more expensive, beautiful - beautiful ), and analytically - with the help of special words:

• comparative - more, less + initial form of the adjective ( more complex, less interesting );
• excellent - the most, least, the + initial form of the adjective (the most attractive, the most fun ) or everything, all + a simple comparative degree of the adjective ( sings best, valued the most ).

Words of this part of speech in a synthetic comparative form do not change in cases, numbers and gender and do not agree with the noun, the sign of which they denote. Their syntactic function in the sentence is the nominal part of the compound nominal predicate ( An old friend is better than the new two ).

For most high-quality adjectives, simple and compound forms of degrees of comparison can exist in parallel, but there are words that in the modern language do not form a simple comparative degree: massive, early, timid, and others.

Another nuance to which attention should be paid is the formation of degrees of comparison from different foundations, for example: good is better, bad is worse, small is less .

Comparative and superlative degrees should be distinguished from the words-manifestations of subjective assessment, which indicate not the degree of manifestation of a given sign in a particular situation, but the speaker's assessment of this sign: a tiny pen, pretty face, huge paws . Adjectives with the suffixes - ovat - / - evat - should not be included in this group: such words indicate not a subjective assessment of a sign, but objective incompleteness of its manifestation, for example: whitish haze, greenish tint .

Relative adjectives

If we compare the categories of nouns and adjectives, we can draw the following parallel: material nouns indicate a substance, material, and relative adjectives - a sign in relation to this substance, material: wood - wooden, rice - rice, ice - ice . However, the sign indicated by the adjectives of this group may apply not only to the material, but also to the place, time, etc., for example: evening, summer, foreign, domestic, coastal . This feature manifests itself constantly and cannot be expressed to a greater or lesser extent; therefore, relative adjectives are unable to form degrees of comparison.

Possessive adjectives

This category combines adjectives that answer the question of whose? and denoting that the item belongs to someone or something: dad's friend, wolf's fang, sheep’s wool, grandfather’s cap .

Adjective ranks: figurative use of words

To increase the expressiveness of speech, in some cases adjectives from one category can be used in the meaning of words from another category, for example: an iron circle - iron nerves, a wolf trail - a wolf glance, a gold chain - golden hands . In this regard, the rank of the adjective is determined not only taking into account general formal indicators, but also with close attention to the context.