ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses adjectives in detail. Adjectives are a significant word class but individually they are not as frequent as function words. The first distinction to be made is between the attributive and predicative use of adjectives. A predicative adjective is one that is used on its own, separate from a noun, typically after the verb be, but also after other link verbs. A third way in which the position of adjectives in structure is important is when they occur as the head of a noun phrase preceded by the, referring in general to all people with that characteristic. A lot of adjectives are said to be 'gradable' in that various levels of its characteristic are possible. This is shown when degree adverbs are placed in front. One factor that is not dealt with here is the issue of how these adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives since this involves a change of form, and, as with other inflections.
