English Grammer Teaching

Welcome to English Grammar. This Chapter is about Adjectives and Adverbs. In this chapter, we’ll explore two essential parts of speech that add depth and clarity to our sentences. The chapter is divided into two parts: adjectives, which describe nouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

We’ll cover their classifications, grammatical functions, and usage rules. For adjectives, we’ll discuss types like gradable, non-gradable, stative, and dynamic adjectives, as well as their roles as modifiers and complements. For adverbs, we’ll study their formation, positions in sentences, and functions as adjuncts, disjuncts, or conjuncts. Let’s dive in!

First, we’ll learn something about adjectives. Adjectives are open-class words. They are chiefly used as modifying elements in a sentence.

Let’s turn to Part 1: Classification of adjectives. Adjectives may be divided into one-word and compound adjectives, central and peripheral adjectives, dynamic and stative adjectives, gradable and non-gradable adjectives.

A one-word adjective may consist of only one free morpheme, such as big，small，bad. Compound adjectives are formed in different ways， such as light-blue，good-looking and hard-working.

In terms of syntactic function, adjectives can be divided into two groups： central adjectives and peripheral adjectives. Most adjectives can be used both as modifier in a noun phrase and as subject or object complement. Please look at the three sentences with “green”. “Green” can be used as a modifier to modify “apples”. In the second and third examples, “green” can be used as subject or object complement. These adjectives are labelled “central” as distinguished from “peripheral adjectives” that refer to the few which cannot satisfy both these requirements. For example, the adjective “utter” can only function as premodifier, while “asleep” can only be used as complement.

Semantically, adjectives can be dynamic or stative. Stative adjectives, such as tall, short, big, describe the static characteristics of animate or inanimate objects, and most adjectives are stative adjectives. Dynamic adjectives, such as ambitious, careful，generous，describe the dynamic properties of people or things, and they are different in use from stative adjectives.

Morphologically, adjectives can be gradable and non-gradable. Most adjectives are gradable adjectives, whose gradability is manifested through the forms of comparison and through modification by intensifiers. All dynamic and most stative adjectives are gradable adjective,such as careful, witty, patient. The few non-gradable ones include some denominal adjectives that denote classification or provenance, such as atomic scientist, Chinese carpet. Some other adjectives, such as perfect, excellent，extreme，are also non-gradable because their lexical meanings have already denoted a high or extreme degree.