A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

[28] PREDICATIVE

a. She was devoted to her children.

11 a. She was cautious to excess.

§ 1.9 Other functions of AdjPs 121

ATTRIBUTIVE

b. *a devoted to her children mother

b. *a cautious to excess manager

There are a few post-head dependents that can occur with attributive adjectives,
though, as seen in [29].

[29] i a. The house was f2jg enough.

ii a. The result was better than expected.

iii a. It was better than anyone expected.

b. a f2jg enough house

b. a better than expected result

b. a better result than anyone expected

Enough is allowed quite generally after gradable adjectives, as in [i].

Than expected in [iib] is a short comparative complement that is permitted within

an attributive AdjP.

A longer phrase would have to be located after the head noun, as in [iiib], where

it functions as indirect complement (see Ch. 5, §4).

1.9 Other functions of AdjPs

Besides the two major functions discussed above, there are two rela­
tively minor functions in which adjectives and AdjPs are found.

(a) Postpositives

Postpositive adjectives function in NP structure as post-head internal modifier.
There are three cases to consider:

[30] i everything useful somebody rich somewhere safe those responsible

ii children keen on sport a report full of errors a suggestion likely to oU-end

iii the only modification possible the ones asleep the president elect

The examples in [i] have fused determiner-heads, making it impossible for the

adjectives to occur in the usual pre-head position - compare everything useful

with every useful thing.

The modifiers in [ii] would be inadmissible in pre-head position because the adjec­

tive has its own post-head dependents; the postpositive construction provides a way

of getting around the fact that such AdjPs cannot be used as attributive modifiers.

A limited number of adjectives can occur postpositively without their own

dependents and with a non-fused head noun, as in [iii]: possible can also be

attributive whereas asleep (as we have seen) cannot. Elect (meaning "recently

elected but not in office yet") is one of a very small number of exceptional adjec­

tives that occur only postpositively.

(b) External modifiers

Certain forms of AdjP occur right at the beginning of the NP, before the indefinite
article a:
[31] a. [How long a delay] will there be?
ii a. It seemed [such a bargain].

b. He 'd chosen [too dark a colour].

b. [What a/ool] I was.