SESSION 1: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE

WRITING

MAY GRACE D. SALAZAR

Discussant
INTRODUCTION
The forms of adjectives in English are not as complicated as they
are in some other languages. Although they once did, English
adjectives no longer inflect for gender, person or number.
Many adjectives can occupy more than one position, but
depending on where they are placed, they may convey different
meanings.
When more than one adjective is used, they often must be
sequenced a particular way, which may cause problems for
students.
THE FORM OF ADJECTIVES

Attributive position PREDICATIVE POSITION

before a noun after be copula and other
copular or linking verbs seem,
NP (det) (AP) N (-pl) appear, feel, look, etc.
(PrepP)
NP cop AP
the funny clowns The clowns are funny.
a perfect match The weather turned cold.
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Many adjectives can appear in both positions,

certain ones called reference adjectives,
must occur prenominally.
The following list details the eight categories
of adjectives that occur exclusively in
attributive position (Bolinger, 1967).
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjective that show the reference of the head noun has

{}
already been determined:
very
particular
the same man I was seeking
self-same
exact
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjectives that show us the importance or rank of the head

{}
noun:
main
prime
their principal faults
chief
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjectives that show the head noun is recognized by the law

{}
or custom:
lawful
the rightful heir
legal
true
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjectives that identify the reference of the noun itselfthat

is, they, tell us (in part) what the noun meansand that may not
occur after the copula be.
a medical doctor *a doctor is medical
an atomic physicist *a physicist is atomic
reserved officer * an officer is reserve
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjectives that qualify the time reference of a noun.

the future king the former chairperson
the present monarch the previous occupant
Those adjectives that qualify the geographical reference of the
noun:
the Southern gentleman the urban crisis
the rural mail carrier
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Those adjectives that intensify or emphasize the head noun:

a total stranger a mere child
sheer fraud utter nonsense
Those adjectives that show the uniqueness of the head noun:
the sole survivor
the only nominee
a single individual
PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES
Adjectives that begin with an a-prefix:
The boy is asleep. *the asleep boy
The boat is adrift. *the adrift boat
Health adjectives (Chalker, 1984):
Larry feels faint. He is not well.
Adjectives that must be followed by prepositional phrases or
infinitives
Hes bound for China. Debbie seems inclined to agree.
PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES
Predicative adjectives can also occur directly after the noun when the
copular verb has been deleted. There are two kinds:
The first kind of postnominal adjective consists of adjectives modifying
object nouns:
They considered Stuart mad.
(This pattern occurs with certain verbs. One group showing mental
assessments or personal preferences, such as consider, like, think, prefer,
declare, report, believe, imagine, hold, want, call and so on.)
Sandy thought it odd.
(Another group of verbs that permit adjectives to follow the object directly
are certain causative verbs such as make, turn, get, keep.)
The frost turned the leaves brown.
PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES

The second kind of postnominal adjective can be said to be derived

from relative clauses. They follow the noun directly, having lost the
relative pronoun and the be verb of the relative clause.
The news available at this time is not good.
[ that is
]
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
ATTRIBUTIVE VERSUS PREDICATIVE POSITION
Many adjectives can appear in both attributive and predicative position;
however, with a few adjectives, there is a change in meaning.
The responsible person. (trustworthy)
That person is responsible. (trustworthy, or to blame)
There is often something semantically more permanent or characteristic
about the attributive adjectives that directly precede nouns than the
postnominal adjectives that directly follow nouns, which tend to reflect
temporary states of specific events; for example:
The stolen jewels (a characteristic of the jewels)
The jewel stolen (identified by a specific actmaybe they were
recovered later.
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES

ATTRIBUTIVE VERSUS PREDICATIVE POSITION

Predicative adjectives are potentially ambiguous, since if we say:
These jewels are stolen.
The river is navigable.
These people are guilty.
As Bolinger points out, attributive position tends to reject the tempoarary
and the occasional: for example:
The house was pink in the sunset The pink house
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
ATTRIBUTIVE VERSUS PREDICATIVE POSITION
Health adjectives are usually used predicatively:
He is sick.
If we change the adjective to attributive position, the quality is construed
as much more enduring:
He is a sick man.
Attributive position also favors negatives that characterize:
the departed relative *the arrived relative
your absent friend *your present friend
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
ATTRIBUTIVE VERSUS PREDICATIVE POSITION
Compound attributive adjectives formed with present participles tend to reflect
habitual or customary action as opposed to isolated events:
Your friend writes plays. Your play-writing friend
The man broke a leg. The leg-breaking man
Other languages use adjective position to mark meaningful differences
El viejo amigo describes a friend you have had for a long time.
El amigo aviejo describes a friend who is elderly.
Three-way ambiguity of the English phrase an old friend, paraphrase with a
relative clause to make its meaning clear:
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
PARTICIPLES (Present Versus Past)
A problem for many non-native speakers of English is the adjectival use of
ing and en participles derived from emotive verbs.
Emotive verbs: aggravate, alarm, amaze, amuse, annoy, astonish,
bewilder, bore, calm, captivate, charm, comfort, concern, confuse,
convince, defeat, disappoint, disturb, embarrass, encourage, frighten,
insult, interest, intrigue, involve, love, mislead, mystify, overwhelm,
please, puzzle, satisfy, shock, stagger, surprise, terrify, tire, worry
Emotive Verb -en participle refers to -ing participle refers to
the experiencer (the the cause (the subject
object of the active of the active sentence
sentence with the with the emotive verb)
emotive verb)
Sports interest Dave. Dave is interested in Sports are interesting to
sports. Dave.
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
STATIVE OR DYNAMIC
Givon (1993) places the major parts of speech on a continuum, saying that
nouns tend to encode the most static lexical meanings, verbs least static,
with adjectives (and related adverbs) somewhere in between.
Nouns _________________ Adjectives/Adverbs__________________Verbs
most static meanings least static meanings
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
RESTRICTIVE OR NON-RESTRICTIVE
Restrictive is necessary for defining which noun is being referred to:
I live in a brick house.
Non-restrictive merely an additional information without being essential for
identification:
I live in the corner house, which is brick.
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES
POLARITY
This refers to the positive and negative contrasts in a language.
big small
old young
rough smooth
THE MEANING OF ADJECTIVES

GRADABILITY
[less intense] [more intense]
somewhat rare, rare, rare, quite rare, very rare, extremely rare
Some adjectives are not gradable:
Reference adjectives: The very symphonic concert
Adjectives with an absolute meaning: a very alternative way at the matter
Adjectives of nationality: She is very Scottish.
ISSUES OF USE

ORDER OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Rule: AP (intens)n ADJn (PrepP)
a big yellow car
an old Italian woman
ISSUES OF USE
ORDER OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES
Sled (1959) gives the following order
predeterminer, core determiner, post determiner, intensifier,
descriptive adjective, noun adjective , noun adjunct or modifier,
head noun (the noun being modified)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

all (of) the dozen very long- American- ROSES

stemmed beauty
ISSUES OF USE
ORDER OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES
Bailey (1975) points out that Sledds fifth category (descriptive
adjectives) has several subcategories)
a. coloration
b. measurement (tiny, short)
c. shape (irregular, round)
d. subjective evaluation (nice, sweet)
ISSUES OF USE

ORDER OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

Bailey had this structure:
1) determiner
2) subjective or evaluation adjective
3) measurement adjective
4) coloration adjective
5) head noun
1 2 3 4 5 6
The poor little pink plastic doll
ISSUES OF USE

CASES WITH VARIABLE ORDER (Bailey)

Proper adjectives and the way they order with material adjectives

{ }
such as wooden, brick, and glassy
These wooden Japanese chests
Japanese wooden
ISSUES OF USE
CASES WITH VARIABLE ORDER (Bailey)
Proper adjectives and adjectives of color such as

A
{ }
German white
white German
wine
ISSUES OF USE
CASES WITH VARIABLE ORDER (Bailey)
Adjectives denoting shapes such as round, oblong, wide and flat
may, in combinations with other adjectives, be arranged according

{ }
to the demands of the context

A large oblong box

yellow
ISSUES OF USE
THE PRIMARY STRESS RULE
Context 1: Three large triangles one blue, one red, and one yellow
produced the large YELLOW triangle.
Context 2: Three yellow triangles two small and one large
produced the LARGE yellow triangle.
The ordering of measurement and color adjectives is more or less
fixed, but English speakers assign primary stress on one adjectives
or the depending on context: that is, the adjective that most Cleary
limits and defines the noun with respect to the other nouns in the
same context gets the primary stress.