Delahunty and Garvey
type). We will discuss the words that function as determiners in our chapter
on Minor Parts of Speech. Briefly, this class includes words such as a/an, the,
this, that, some, every, and many. Thus the italicized words in sentences (6a-c)
are adjectives:
(6) a. The recent discovery of HG 116...
b. This remarkable discovery...
c. Some unnerving developments...
Examples of adjectives that appear after be-become-seem verbs are:
(7) a. I am steadfast.
b. She grew stubborn.
c. He appears pig-headed.
Using these patterns we can create another analytic test for adjectives:
analytic test 9: A word may be an adjective if it can occur (a) between a
determiner and a noun, or (b) after verbs of the be-become-seem class.
These tendencies are not as strong as the earlier analytic tests that we pro-
posed, since non-adjectives can appear in both positions; however, they may
support the tests in doubtful cases.
Exercise
Create two test frames for adjectives based on Analytic Test 9, and ap-
ply them to prominent, certain, seasonal, different, and next to show
that they may be adjectives.
As we mentioned earlier, adjectives and adverbs may occur after words such as
very, rather, and quite:
(8) a. Very tired
b. Quite bored
c. Rather inflexible
analytic test 10: A word may be an adjective if it can be modified by very,
quite, or rather.