|  | 

Nouns are often accompanied by ancillary words, which fall into either of two categories:

1. Determiners,
2. Adjectives

Some years ago grammar books did not carry the "Determiner" category. Add-ons to the noun were either classified as "Articles" or "Adjectives".
The new mapping has removed some terms ("possessives", and others) from the adjective class and lumped them with articles seeing both as determiners.

    3.3a - DETERMINERS

Determiners point to

• a location (this, that),
• ownership and possession (my, our ...),
• quantity (few, many, 3, 15 ...)
• whether the noun is sharply identified or generic (the, a).

Different sub-groups of the Determiners class are shown in the following graph.

    3.3a1 - Articles

English articles are the and a (or an, when the word which follows begins with a vowel).

When an article is attached, it signals whether we are dealing with something already known to the listener or with something soon to be identified⁽³⁾.

If we say The tree is blossoming, we are supposed to know which tree is meant from the context of a conversation or reading, or because the speaker gestures pointing to a specific tree.

If we say A tree is blossoming, the focus of the message might be on the awakening of nature in spring. The listener is not expected to locate any particular tree.

According to the distinction just made, article "the" is determinate (or definite, specific) and "a" indeterminate (or indefinite, generic).

With plural nouns, English determinate articles do not undergo any change: the tree, the trees.

As to indeterminates, they lack plural forms: substitute expressions must be worked out (some, a number of) or indeterminate articles are removed altogether:

In most languages, proper nouns reject articles (Paula phoned).

Summing up:

* Zero article means that plural of a or an is signalled by removing articles: A critic believes that Sergio Leone was … >>> Critics believe that Sergio Leone was ….
The zero article mark is in the SINGULAR column as well, because lack of article also occurs with singular nouns taken in their generic sense, as in Water is needed to survive.

** An precedes words beginning with a vowel sound.
Take care: sometimes vowels blend with other letters and take up a consonant sound: the letter group EU is not sounded as E+U, but its sound is consonant-like (something like "yoo").
So one should write A European city (not An European city).
Instead, An expert driver is OK (the "e" in "expert" has a vowel sound).

Unlike languages based on Latin⁽⁴⁾, English adjusts possessive determiners to the identity of the owner - not to the item being owned. All other Germanic languages behave like English in this respect.

Compare the French expression son livre with the English her book (assuming that the book's owner is a woman). Son is the French masculine possessive because livre is a masculine noun (le livre). English focuses instead on who owns the book (a woman, hence the feminine her).

This Determiner category signals quantity. Its specimens are many, few, several, some, only, and any figure: zero (this may come in the no form, usually followed by at all), 5, 6,358.50 ... .

• Samantha likes reading many books.

  Here we find a cascaded object: the direct object of transitive predicate likes is reading (Samantha likes what? Reading). But, in turn, the verb to read refers to a second object: the noun bundle many books.
  Later on it will be recognised that a cascaded object is a compact rendering used to compress the multi-clause sentences discussed in Part IV. For the moment, be aware that this example consists of two clauses: 1) she likes reading 2) what she reads is books.

• Many a child caught the flu at school.

  Note the English construction many a: it requires the noun to be singular, but the verb stays in the plural form. Another locution is at all times (with "times, plural), meaning "always", "non-stop".

• Ahmed is the only foreign worker in this factory.
• Her brother has no car at all.

• The €400 he owes you, you'd better forget about it.

  400: a cardinal determiner of noun euro. English grammar handles money figures as singular entities: ... forget about it (instead of them: the 400 euros).
  (This example is another instance of multi-clause sentences.)

• It is the third time I tell you: I don't know where your socks are.

  Again, a four-clause sentence, as confirmed by the 4 subjects ("it", "I", "I", "your socks") and predicates ("is", "tell", "don't know", "are").

       3.3a4 - Locators (also called Demonstratives)

The purpose of such Determiners as this, these, that, those, other⁽⁵⁾ is to locate the noun:

• You should read that book.
  We understand that the book is away from the person saying that.
• These people drive me crazy.
  Here it may be that the people are physically close to the person saying that. But these may also be used to convey the idea that the people are interfering and nagging (the sense of vicinity is not spatial, but psychological).
• OK, you don't like this singer. Just listen to his other song, though.
Some locator determiners don't accept being in the same noun bundle with article determiners. It is not possible to say:
    The this dish is my favourite food.

While determiners state a basic relationship to a point in space (this book), to an owner (their book), to amounts (4 books, many books), adjectives sharpen - as it were - the bare notion conveyed by the noun.

The noun mountain takes a more precise shape on if adjectives snowy, tall, rocky, majestic, wild-looking are added to it.

Nouns point to "substances", i.e. something bodily - with their body being material in some instances (as with "tree", "coffe pot", "hand") and immaterial in other instances (as with ideas: "fairness", "illness", "beauty").

Adjectives point to "aspects" of the substance found in nouns: a "tree" may be tall, leafless or luxuriant; a "coffee pot" spotless, tarnished or ancient; "hand" hardened, delicate or murderous; "fairness" long-due, hypocritical or unwelcome; "illness" light or grave, and "beauty" may be defined as stunning or artificial.

Some words have several meanings and, depending on context, perform as adjectives or nouns, verbs.

Take "grave" as an example: when it means a burial place or artifact it is a noun (it is something substantial which is clarified further by adjectives such as monumental, nondescript ...); but "grave" can also be an adjective - as in "a grave illness".

The fact that the same word represents different building blocks is fortuitous (due to random chance only). On moving to another language you almost invariably find different words associated with each meaning: in French "grave" as adjective is "grave", but the noun linked to "burial place" translates as "tombeau"; in German the first meaning yields "ernst", the second "Grab".

Many adjectives stem from a noun base: from noise we form noisy, noiseless; from rest we get restful; from sportsman we have sportsmanlike and so forth.

In addition, nouns are made adjectives because of the role assigned to them, without their look being affected:

• How much money is there in your bank account?
• You cannot drink sea water!

• Combien d'argent y a-t-il dans votre compte bancaire?
• Tu ne peux pas boire de l'eau marine (de l'eau de mer)!

In an expression like rain dance, "rain" can both be seen as purpose complement or as adjective.

There are instances of fundamental noun and qualifying noun merging into one single word: mailman, railtrack ... which are known as compound (or "composite") words.

There are also cases of the adjective enclosing an etymon⁽⁶⁾ subsequently used to make up nouns: noun nicety clearly derives from adjective nice, fastness from fast.

Verb-based adjectives

Most verbs lend themselves to performing as adjectives when in participle forms⁽⁷⁾: from "to dilapidate" we form "dilapidated" (past participle: meaning "run down"), "to run" yields "running" (a present participle functioning as adjective in running shoes).

Invariability of adjectives in English

English adjectives do not adjust to gender, number of the nouns they refer to. They come in one-fit-all version: a clever woman, a clever man, a clever idea, clever women, clever men.

Yet sometimes adjectives do display plural forms: fundamentals, payables, receivables. In fact, those forms are shorthand for "fundamental rules", "payable / receivable accounts". Therefore, by implicitly representing nouns (rules, accounts) they are not adjectives at all, they are in fact pronouns.

Both English nouns and verbs may perform as adjectives:
• I took my winter clothes out of the closet.
• That machinery is a digging tool.

Although "winter" is a noun and "digging" a verb in the present participle form, in those examples they are adjectives because the first qualifies noun "clothes" and the second noun "tool"⁽⁸⁾.

Localisation of adjectives

Like determiners, also English adjectives are placed before the noun (compare the French "maison blanche" with "white house).

All Germanic languages behave like English: determiners and qualifiers precede the noun.

This rule seems to lapse in:

Our bank account has a large sum outstanding.

In fact what we have is shorthand for the a two-claused sentence:

1. Our bank account has a large sum ...
2. ... that sum is still outstanding (after our withdrawals)⁽⁹⁾.

Comparatives, Superlatives

Adjectives signal qualities in nouns, and quality occurs in varying degrees. Hence adjectives adjust to different intensity levels.

This is achieved by

• either changing the adjective itself (good > better, short > shorter)
• or by adding an intensifier - be it more, most, very, exceedingly ... - to the basic adjective form.
  (Or, as needed, de-intensifiers are used: less, least ...)

In the comparative form the quality is benchmarked against a measuring rod, i.e. other nouns having a comparable degree of the same quality:

• Jasper is smarter than Maia.
• Jasper is less trustworthy than Maia.

Notice the word "than".

It liaises the two items (or groups of items) being compared. Liaison words are called conjunctions and are discussed in #3.7.

The superlative form of adjectives states lack / fullness of a quality without benchmarking it against any comparable item:

• Maia is a most lovely husky dog.  [fullness]
• Angela has the softest fur.  [fullness]
• A hyena can be the meanest of animals.  [lack]

If superlative utterances are meant within bounds, then we have relative superlative (in relation to set bounds):

• Jari is the largest dog in this park today.
• Jack is the least sportsmanlike guy of our school.

When no bounds are set, the superlative is - within reasonable limits - absolute.

 |  | 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

FOOTNOTES

(1) – Other languages may allow this though. In Italian it is correct to say Il suo libro.
And of course also in English one may say my 3 books, so we mitigated determiners' mutual exclusiveness by adding "to some extent".

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) – The correct form is This book of mine - with mine being a pronoun representing the bundle my books (pronouns are introduced further). Again, this rule applies to English, not to all languages (Italian has questo mio libro).

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) – An example of a noun soon to be identified is:

The movie we saw last night still disquiets me.
Please note that this sentence wraps two clauses (1) Last night we saw a movie 2) That movie disquiets me). Multi-clause sentences shall be discussed in Part IV.

"The" is attached to "movie" in anticipation of what follows: "the one we saw last night".

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) – French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Moldovian, regional languages in Switzerland and elsewhere.

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) – Other is not included among the locators (the demonstratives) in most grammar books. But a case can be made for including it. Just think of the exchange:

• Should we rent this DVD tonight? (the speaker points to a poster on the windows store)
• No, I wish the other movie.

If only another DVD is shown on the poster, then other performs as a determiner.

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) – "Etymon": the earliest recorded form later used as the common basis from which related words (even in several languages) are derived.

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) – "Participle" is one of the verb tenses, i.e. one of the many shapes verbs can take to adjust to different times when actions are performed or states of being are occurring. Tenses are introduced in #3.5. The participle tense has two forms, both of which may perform as adjectives:

1.     Present participle:
   I am wearing jogging sneakers.
   
2.     Past participle:
   This is a exhausted battery, throw it out.

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(8) – return

Their performing as adjectives can be checked against other languages.

Italian has both the noun inverno (winter) and the verb scavare (to dig). But it would not be possible to write inverno vestiti as a translation of "winter clothes". First a formal adjective must be found: inverno (winter) > invernale (wintry). "Winter clothes" translates into vestiti invernali.

In the case of "digging", Italian cannot use the present participle of "scavare" (scavante) as an adjective, nor is it available a formal adjective with that meaning. The only option is to construe a purpose complement and add it to arnese (tool): arnese da scavo (with "da scavo" meaning: "for excavation").

The ability of English to create qualifying forms knows no bounds:

• A horse-faced attendant told us …
      Here the noun "attendant" is qualified by "horse-faced" - an adjective obtained by joining two nouns (horse and face*).
• The sorry-but-I-have-no-time-for-such-nonsense civil servant turned on his heels and went away.
      A whole clause is here turned into an adjective.
• Nothing to worry about! We are in a win-win situation
      Here we have an adjective built by reiterating the verb to win as opposed to win / lose.
__________________
*More correctly, the noun face was first turned into a verb ("to face" - with the unusual meaning of "to have the face of") and its past participle ("to face" >> "faced") is used as an adjective.

return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(9) – return

The two clauses encompassed by the sentence are:

1st sentence
Our bank account	has	a large sum
SUBJECT (noun bundle 1)	PREDICATE (transitive kind, using verb "to have")	OBJECT (noun bundle 2)
2nd sentence
That sum	is outstanding
SUBJECT (noun bundle 3)	PREDICATE ("TO+QUALIFIER" kind)

Comments:

• Noun bundle 1: Our bank account
  ACCOUNT: a noun, the core of bundle 1
  OUR: a determiner
  BANK: a noun turned adjective
  In French you could not say banque compte: first you should derive a formal adjective from the noun banque (>> bancaire), then you can add it to the noun bundle: un compte bancaire
• Noun bundle 2: a large sum
  SUM: a noun, the core of bundle 2
  A: a determiner (indeterminate article)
  LARGE: an adjective
• Noun bundle 3: that sum
  SUM: a noun, the core of bundle 3
  THAT: a determiner (of the locator kind)
• Also look at the predicate of the "TO BE + QUALIFIER" kind: is outstanding
  IS: verb "to be"
  OUTSTANDING: an adjective derived from verb "stand out"

return