A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

1.2 Adjectives vs nouns

§ 1.2 Adjectives vs nouns 113

The properties given above make it a generally easy matter to distin­
guish adjectives from nouns, especially when taken together with the properties of
nouns presented in Ch. 5, § 1.
In this section we pick out a selection of the most decisive properties that do dis­
tinguish between nouns and adjectives. We use judge, size, and silk as examples of
words that occur as nouns but not as adjectives, and wise, big, and smooth as exam­
ples of words that occur as adjectives but not as nouns.

(a) Inflection

Nouns typically have plural inflected forms; adjectives (in English) never do.
Conversely, many adjectives have comparative and superlative inflected forms,
but no nouns do:

[ 4 ] PLURAL FORMS WITH ·s OR ·es SUPERLATIVE FORMS WITH ·est

a. N judges sizes silks b. *judgest *sizest *silkest

ii a. ADJ *wises *bigs *smooths b. wisest biggest smoothest

Not all nouns have plural forms and not all adjectives have comparative and superla­
tive forms, but where the forms do exist the difference between nouns and adjectives
is particularly clear.

(b) Determiners

Nouns take determiners as dependent but adjectives do not. Some of the determi­

natives that function as determiner in NP structure, however, can also function as

modifier in AdjP structure, so in applying this test we need to select items which

cannot modify adjectives. This ca n be done by picking genitives, or the determina­

tives which and some:

[5] N

ii ADJ

which judge?

*which wise?

(c) Modifiers

my llig

*my llig

some silk

* some smooth

Nouns and adjectives take different kinds of modifiers. Most importantly, NOUNS

TAKE ADJECTIVES as modifier, but adjectives don't normally take other adjectives

as modifier. Adjectives most often take adverbs. There are enormous numbers of

adjective-adverb pairs that differ just by the presence of the suffix ·ly on the adverb,

as in remarkable vs remarkably, and in those cases it is the word without the ·ly that

modifies a following noun, and the one with ·ly that modifies a following adjective,

as the examples in [6] show:

[6] i N

ii ADJ

a remarkable judge

remarkably wise

its incredible llig

incredibly llig

this wonderful silk

wonderfully smooth

Switching adjectives and adverbs makes ungrammatical phrases in every case: *a

remarkably judge, *remarkable wise, etc.