Adjective phrases
An adjective phrase (AdjP) has an adjective as its head. This can be preceded by modifying adverbs (for example, extremely slow) or followed by modifying prepositional phrases (for example, the PP than his brother in the AdjP taller than his brother) or clauses (for example, worse than she ever imagined).
An AdjP can function as a modifier within a noun phrase (for example, the hungry mice) or as a predicative complement in a verb phrase (for example, is hungry). In both cases, the AdjP ascribes a property (in these examples, hungry).
Contents1. Adjective phrase dependents 2. Functions of the adjective phrase Related pages |
Adjective phrase dependents
AdjPs can have various dependents which modify the head, such as adverbs (for example, relatively efficient), prepositional phrases (for example, slow as a snail) or clauses (for example, better than I could have hoped).
Adverbs modify the head to provide information about degree and commonly occur before the head (for example, utterly divine), although a few occur after, for example, wide enough.
Determiners can be pre-head modifiers, for example, any worse, this long.
NPs are also found as modifiers in an AdjP, for example, a bit loud, a month late.
Dependents which typically occur after the head are PPs and clauses.
Some adjectives require a complement in all or some of their uses. These complements take the form of prepositional phrases and comparative clauses. For example, Theo is often short of cash (PP), Olga is much nicer than Fred says she is (comparative clause).
Functions of the adjective phrase
AdjPs have two main functions: they can modify the head within a noun phrase (for example, my purple hat), or function as a predicative complement following the tensed verb in a VP (for example, seems so delightful).
If they occur in the NP, AdjPs are attributive.
AdjPs can also occur as complements in clauses with some verbs, for example, Nina became suspicious of Des (intransitive verb), Otis considers Gregory rather unreliable (transitive verb). In this case their function is predicative.
Most AdjPs can occur in both attributive and predicative position. Some exceptions are: glad (to be home) can only be predicative, for example, the child is glad (to be home) but not *the glad (to be home) child; damn can only be attributive, for example, the damn car but not *the car is damn.
An AdjP can also function as a predicative adjunct. It provides information about another entity, for example, We were disappointed with the outcome (predicative complement), Disappointed with the outcome, we vowed to put more effort in (predicative adjunct).
Some AdjPs can also occur as post-head modifiers in the NP, i.e. they follow the noun, for example, Ivy wanted to meet someone fond of animals.