Contents of Adjectives
DEFINITION, CLASSIFICATION, AND FUNCTIONNoun, adverb, phrase, or sentence used as an adjective
Adjective elements
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
Derivative adjectives
CLASSES OF LIMITING ADJECTIVES
Possessive
Lively tone in possessive adjectives
Personal pronoun instead of possessive adjective
Use of possessive adjectives and pronouns with indefinites
Intensifying Origin
Intensifying adjectives used as pronouns
Demonstrative
'Every' and 'each'
'Both,' 'all,' 'half,' 'each' 'Suchlike' in older English
Meaning of 'either' Determinatives
'Such' with the force of that,' 'those,' 'this,' 'these,' 'the'.
Intensifying 'such'
Redundancy
Emotional 'that' and 'this
'Ye'
Numeral
Cardinal
Ordinal.
Multiplicative
Relative.
Definite 'which'
Indefinite 'which,' 'what,' 'which (so)ever,' 'what (so)ever'
Indefinite
Means of imparting feeling
American some' with force of descriptive adjective
Form of indefinite article
Interrogative
Proper Exclamatory
Definition, Classification, and Function of Adjective
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun, i.e. a word that is used with a noun or pronoun to describe or point out the living being or lifeless thing designated by the noun or pronoun: a little boy, that boy, this boy, a little house. There are two classes, descriptive and limiting. A descriptive adjective expresses either the kind or condition or state of the living being or lifeless thing spoken of: a good boy, a bright dog, a tall tree; a sick boy, a lame dog. The participles of verbs in adjective function are all descriptive adjectives, since they indicate either an active or passive state: run ning water, a dying soldier, a broken chair.A limiting adjective, without expressing any idea of kind or condition, limits the application of the idea expressed by the noun to one or more individuals of the class, or to one or more parts of a whole, i.e. points out persons or things: this boy, this book, these boys, these books, my house, each house, many books; this part of the city, his share of the expense, etc.
In all the examples given above, the adjective stands before the noun. The adjective in this position is called an adherent adjective. In this position a descriptive adjective has less stress than the noun when it is desired to describe: 'this little boy. When we desire to distinguish or classify we stress the descriptive adjective more than the noun: 'the little boy, not the big one' (distinguishing stress); 'Big words seldom go with good deeds' (classifying stress). But when we desire to stress a descriptive adjective and at the same time impart to it descriptive force we place it after the noun: 'a laugh músical but malicious.' In this position the adjective is called an appositive adjective.
In all of the examples given above, the adjectives are used attributively, i.e. are attributive adjectives, i.e. they stand before the noun or after it in direct connection with it; but the adjective can stand also after a linking verb as a predicate, i.e. a word which says something of the subject: 'The tree is tall.' Here the adjective can be used also with a pronoun: 'John isn't here today; he is sick. The predicate adjective stands also after the passive form of certain transitive verbs: 'He was found sick.' 'He is reported sick.'
The linking verb is lacking when the adjective or participle predicates something of an object:
'I found him sick.' 'She boiled the egg hard.' 'I started the clock going.' 'I have some money coming to me yet.' 'They caught him cheating.' 'He kept me waiting.' 'I at last got the machine running.' 'I got my work done before six,' but with a different meaning with a change of accent: 'We gét (or háve) our work done.' 'I had (or got) my leg húrt in an accident,' but 'I hád (or gót) a new suit made.' 'I consider the matter séttled.' The predicate here can be also an adverb or a prepositional phrase with the force of a predicate adjective: 'She wished him here.' 'She wished him in better circumstances.' In all these examples the adjective, participle, adverb, or prepositional phrase is called an objective predicate. The subject of such a predicate is the preceding object. The objective predicate is now sometimes joined to its subject by a linking verb: 'She wished him to be here.' 'She found him sick' (or him to be sick).
In the passive the object becomes subject and the objective predicate becomes predicate: 'He was found sick.' 'He was caught cheating.'
A predicate adjective is often used as an appositive to a predicate noun the predicate appositive: 'He is a good neighbor, always ready to lend a helping hand.' The predicate appositive is frequently joined to a verb of complete predication as a supplementary, modifying predication: 'I came home tired.' 'She ran into the house crying.' 'He was drowned bathing in the river.' The predicate appositive adjectives tired, crying, bathing, modify the verb of the sentence in which they stand and are thus adverbial elements. An adjective does not usually modify a verb, but a predicate adjective in this very common construction regularly does so, for one predication can modify another. In two of these three examples the predicate appositive is an adjective participle. The exceedingly frequent use of adjective participles as predicate appositive alongside of a verb of complete predication, as in the preceding examples, is one of the most conspicuous features of our language.
An adjective or participle is often used as a noun: 'the dead and dying.'
a. Noun, Adverb, Phrase, or Sentence Used as an Adjective.
A noun, an adverb, a phrase, or a sentence is often used as an adjective: a stone (noun used as an adjective) bridge'; 'obvious printer's (or printers'; genitive of a noun used as an adjective) errors'; 'the above (adverb used as an adjective) remark'; 'the then prime minister' (Trollope, Barchester Towers, I) (adverb used as an adjective); 'an up-to-date (prepositional phrase used as an adjective) dictionary'; 'a go-ahead (sentence used as an adjective) little city. The use of a noun, a prepositional phrase, or an adverb as an adjective is especially common in the predicate: 'He was fool enough to marry her.' 'He turned traitor. The car is in good condition.' 'I am in favor of the measure.' 'He is always at strife with the world.' 'He was quite at ease.' 'He is not in.' 'The secret is out.' 'How are you today?' 'The struggle is over.' 'He is already up.' 'He is about (at the point, ready) to take the step.' 'How could it be otherwise?' 'She has her faults, but I should not wish her otherwise' (objective predicate). 'No further threats, [whether they be] economic or otherwise, have been made.'Expressions like thoughts [which are] wise or otherwise' have led to incorrect expressions like the financial wisdom or otherwise of such undertakings,' 'the truth or otherwise of the statements.' We should say here: 'the wisdom or unwisdom of such undertakings,' 'the truth or untruth of the statements.' Also after passive verbs these forms are used as predicate adjectives: 'The car was found in good condition.'
There is a strong tendency for a predicate of-genitive modified by an adjective to drop its of, as noun and adjective are felt as a group of words with the force of an adjective: 'We are [of] the same age, the same size.' 'The door was [of] a dark brown. The ring is [of] a pretty shade.' 'It's [of] no use to fret about it. What price are potatoes today?' Likewise in the objective predicate relation: 'He made the two planks [of] the same width.' 'He painted the door [of] a green color.'
The use of nouns, adverbs, phrases, or sentences as adjectives has brought a large number of new, often very expressive, adjectives into the language: 'a baby boy,' 'a cat-and-dog life,' an up-to-date dictionary,' 'a dry-as-dust study,' 'a pay-as-you-go policy,' etc. Sometimes the new adjective is used alongside of an older adjective but with a different meaning. The new adjective is concrete, the older form abstract: 'a girl cashier,' but 'girlish ways'; 'a boy actor,' but 'a boyish trait'; 'a winter day,' but 'a wintry day'; 'Milton's prose works,' but 'a prosy talker' and 'a prosaic life'; 'a gold watch,' but a golden opportunity' and, in accordance with older usage, 'the hen that laid the golden (now gold) eggs.' Sometimes the two forms are differentiated in other ways: 'a stone bridge,' but 'a stony farm.' Sometimes there is no difference of meaning between the two forms-adjective or adjectival; substantive or substantival: 'adjective, or adjectival, elements. In this last category the adjective with the distinctive adjective ending -al is the newer of the two forms, and often has not become thoroughly established yet. In a number of cases, however, the form with the distinctive adjective ending has become established: 'the adverbial (more common than adverb) suffix -ly,' 'a prepositional phrase,' 'the verbal ending,' etc. We usually say 'autumn woods,' etc., but 'autumnal equinox. Adjectives in -en are often used when the stem is simple, while the noun form is employed if the adjective is a compound or is modified: 'wooden chairs,' but 'maple-wood chairs'; 'woollen shawls,' but 'Shetland wool shawls.' We use beech, flax, hemp, lead, leather, oak, etc., as adjectives, or in more formal language we may employ the form in -en; beechen, flaxen, etc.
b. Adjective Elements.
Although a genitive or an appositive prepositional phrase may have adjective force, they are not adjectives in a formal sense, for they have marked peculiarities of form, or they do not have the usual position of an adjective. In 'John's book' John's, though formally the genitive of a noun, has the force of a limiting adjective. The fact that John's has an ending shows that it is not an adjective, for adjectives do not take endings. In 'a boy of the same age' of the same age, though formally an of-genitive, has the force of a descriptive adjective; it has neither the form nor the usual position of a descriptive adjective. When of the same age becomes formally a predicate adjective it drops of: 'We are the same age. Similarly, an adverb and a prepositional phrase often have the force of adjectives, though formally they are not adjectives, as is revealed by their position after the governing noun: 'the room above,' 'the book on the table.' Here above and on the table have the force of limiting adjectives, but their position shows that formally they are not adjectives. An infinitive often modifies a noun with the force of a descriptive adjective: 'An opportunity to advance came."A relative clause, though it has a peculiar grammatical structure of its own, modifies, like an adjective, a noun or pronoun, pointing out or describing some person or thing: 'The boy who is leaning on the fence is my brother.' 'He is a boy who loves play and hates work. The relative clause with a finite verb, as in these examples, is often replaced by a participial or infinitival relative clause: 'The circus was all one family parents and five children performing (= who performed) in the open air.' 'He is not a man to be trifled with' (= who can be trifled with). Also a conjunctional clause may modify a noun with the force of an adjective: 'The day after (or before) he came was very beautiful.'
There is adjective force also in an appositive noun or clause: 'And these footsteps dying on the stairs were Charley's, his old friend of so many years.' 'These words were Cicero's, the most eloquent of men.' 'I bought the book at Smith's, the bookseller and stationer.' 'I bought the book at Smith's, the bookseller on Main Street.' 'I bought the book at Smith's, the bookseller's [store]." 'I bought the book at Smith's the bookseller.' 'We stopped at Mr. Barton the clergyman's house for a drink of water.' Similarly a whole clause may be an appositive: 'The thought that we shall live on after death in a better world is a solace to many.' An appositive clause of the nature of a loose comment upon some idea contained in a preceding word or group of words is now introduced by the indefinite relative pronoun what, earlier in the period by which: To know a thing, what we can call knowing, a man must first love. the thing' (Carlyle). 'Brown has always envied the creative life force in Dion what he himself lacks' (Barrett H. Clark, Eugene O'Neill, p. 161). The appositive may precede its head-clause or be embedded in it: 'What was very unusual with him, he arrived on time.' 'She would never change unless, what was absurd, he changed first.' 'And, which (now what) is worse, all you have done Hath been but for a wayward son' (Shakespeare, Macbeth, III, v, 10).
On the other hand, a modified noun may serve as an appositive to a preceding statement: 'I, like many another, am apt to judge my fellow men comparison with myself, a wrong and foolish thing to do.'
Compound Adjectives.
On account of the loss of its endings the modern English adjective has acquired a great facility to form compounds: an up-to-date dictionary,' 'a cut-and-dried affair,' 'a plain-clothes policeman,' ' my next-door neighbor,' 'a large-scale map,' 'the quarter-past-seven train,' this, that, and the other news paper.' Notice that English compounds are not always written together as one word.a. Derivative Adjectives.
Similar to compound adjectives are derivative adjectives, i.e. adjectives formed by adding to a noun, an adjective, or a verbal stem a suffix, which in most cases was originally an independent word. These suffixes are: -en, -fold, -ful, ish, -less, -ly, some, -y, -able, etc.: wooden, manifold, hopeful, childish, friendless, manly, lonesome, stony, bearable, etc. The formation of derivative adjectives is treated in detail in Word-Formation.Classes of Limiting Adjectives.
Descriptive adjectives are so simple in nature that they do not form classes. Limiting adjectives, on the other hand, form distinct groups:1. Possessive Adjectives.
They are: my (in older English mine before a vowel), thy (in older English thine before a vowel), his, her, its (in older English it and in still older English his), our, your, their. Examples: my book, my books; thy kindness to us, O Lord; his book, his books; her book, her books; the little baby and its mother; our book (one book owned by two or more persons), our books (the books owned in common or those owned separately); your book (one book owned by the person addressed); your book (one book owned by the two or more persons addressed); your books (the books owned in common by the two or more persons addressed, or the books owned by them separately); their book (one book owned by the two or more persons spoken of); their books (the books owned in common or the books owned separately). Examples of older usage: 'Shall I not take mine (now my) ease in mine (now my) inn?' (Shakespeare, I Henry the Fourth, III, III, 93). 'It had it (now its) head bit off by it (now its) young' (id., King Lear, I, IV, 236). 'Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his (still lingering in the seventeenth century, though older than it; both later replaced by its) savor,' etc. (Matthew, V, 13, edition of 1611).1.a. LIVELY TONE IN POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES.
Possessive adjectives are often employed, not to express possession, but to convey the idea of appreciation or depreciation: 'He knows his Shakespeare.' 'The boy has just broken his third glass.' 'Your true rustic turns his back upon his interlocutor' (George Eliot). The writer or speaker often employs your to direct the attention of his readers or hearers to his own view: 'I should like to believe it (i.e. that the greatest writers have never written anything); but I find it hard. Your great writer is possessed of a devil over which he has very little control' (Huxley, Vulgarity, p. 7). Our often denotes a lively interest present in writer or speaker or to be evoked in reader or listener: our hero,' 'our young friend,' 'our young scapegrace.' 'We must now introduce our reader to the interior of the fisher's cottage' (Scott, The Antiquary, Ch. XXVI, A.D. 1816).1.b. PERSONAL PRONOUN INSTEAD OF POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE.
In the language of American Quakers thee is often used instead of thy: 'Look, Margaret, thee's tearing the skirt of thee dress' (American Speech, Jan., 1926, p. 118). The use of a personal pronoun instead of a possessive adjective is common in southern American dialect: 'He roll he (his) eyeballs "roun" (Joel Chandler Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus, p. 69). Similarly, who for whose: 'SCIPIO. "I been to de trial." VOICE. "Who trial?" (Edward C. L. Adams, Congree Sketches, p. 4). Of course also in British dialect, for our dialect was brought here by early British settlers: arter we horses' (Gepp, Essex Dialect Dictionary, p. 131) after our horses; 'at us (= our) own fireside' (Lancashire).1.c. USE OF POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES AND PRONOUNS WITH IN DEFINITES.
He, his, him, correspond to the numeral one, to one another, and to no one, someone, everyone, anyone: 'One of these men hates his enemies.' 'One hates his enemies and another forgives his.' 'If someone (or anyone) should lose his purse, he should apply to the Lost Property Office.' 'No one likes what doesn't interest him.' The corresponding reflexive is himself: 'One of the boys fell and hurt himself.' 'No one can interest him self in everything.'On the other hand, the possessive corresponding to absolute in definite one is one's: 'One never realizes one's blessings while one enjoys them.' The corresponding reflexive is oneself or one's self: 'One cannot interest oneself (or one's self) in everything.' We often, however, hear himself instead of oneself or one's self, as in older English: 'One might fall and hurt himself' (instead of oneself or one's self).
2. Intensifying Adjectives.
They are: myself, ourself (= myself), thyself, yourself, himself (in dialect hisself), herself, itself (in seven teenth and eighteenth centuries its self), ourselves (in older English ourself), yourselves (in older English yourself), themselves (in older English themself; in current dialect theirselves), oneself or one's self (the latter the older form and still often used in America, the former now the more common form). They intensify the force of a pre ceding noun or pronoun, making it emphatic: 'Father himself admits it.' 'I saw it myself.' 'We think we have hinted elsewhere that Mr. Benjamin Allen had a way of becoming sentimental after brandy. The case is not a peculiar one as we ourself can testify' (Dickens, Pickwick, Ch. XXXVIII). 'I heard it from a lady who herself was present.' 'They admit it themselves.' 'One must decide such things oneself' (or one's self). 'That one should do right oneself (or one's self) is the great thing.' Oneself or one's self intensifies the force of indefinite one. In infinitive clauses an indefinite subject is never expressed. Here indefiniteness is indi cated merely by the suppression of the subject. Thus in such clauses intensifying oneself or one's self stands alone without a preceding one: 'To do right oneself (or one's self) is the great thing.'In case the governing word is a noun, we often use very instead of these adjectives, but it always precedes the noun: 'He drew me out of the very jaws of perdition.' To increase the intensity here we put very in the superlative: 'You have bought the veriest rubbish. We always use very when we desire not only to intensify the force of the word but also to emphasize the idea of identity or coincidence: 'You are the very man I am looking for.'
2.a. ORIGIN OF INTENSIFYING ADJECTIVES.
Originally, as explained, the him in himself and her in herself were datives: 'He saw it himself,' literally for himself, on his own account. In 'She saw it herself' her was originally a dative, like him in himself, but it was construed as a possessive adjective modifying the noun self. Other intensifying adjectives assumed a form to conform to this new conception: myself, ourself, thyself, yourself, yourselves, one's self, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries its self, and in dialect hisself, theirselves. Himself, itself, oneself, themselves, follow the older type, in fact also herself, al though we now feel it as belonging to the younger type. In this struggle between the two types its self has disappeared and hisself and theirselves have thrived only in dialect. One's self is still often used in America, but it has yielded in England to the younger form oneself, which, however, is formed according to the old type.The younger form is now getting the upper hand also in America. Although these adjectives fall into two different groups each with a different type of formation, they all now perform the same function they are adjectives intensifying the noun or pronoun to which they belong. Near the end of the Middle English period these adjectives, like adjectives in general, were uninflected, hence had no distinctive plural form: 'we ourself,' 'you yourself,' 'they themself.' Of these forms ourself and yourself were often ambiguous. Before the beginning of the modern period -s began to appear in the plural to make the grammatical relations clear: 'we ourself' (sing.), 'we ourselves' (pl.); 'you yourself' (sing.), 'you yourselves' (pl.). About 1570 themself became themselves after the analogy of ourselves, yourselves.
2.b. INTENSIFYING ADJECTIVES USED AS PRONOUNS.
The pro noun before an intensifying adjective sometimes drops out so that the intensifying adjective must assume the function of the pronoun in addition to its own, thus becoming an emphatic pronoun. This construction is most common in elliptical sentences: 'Did you ever know a woman to pardon another for being handsomer than her sélf?' (she herself was). It sometimes serves as the predicate of a sentence: 'You are not yourself today.' A feeling of modesty often suggests its use instead of the pompous I myself, me 'General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia this afternoon on terms proposed by mysélf' (U. S. Grant, Telegram to E. M. Stanton, Apr. 9, 1865). This old construction is not so common as it was in early Modern English. It is more widely employed in England than in America: 'His stable had caught fire, himself (in America he himself) had been all but roasted alive' (Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel). In early Modern English the intensifying adjective was often used as an ordinary unemphatic personal pronoun: 'Himself (now simple he) and Montmorin offered their resignation' (Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, p. 138).This older usage lingers in the literary language of England: 'There's only myself and Louisa here' (Hugh Walpole, The Duchess of Wreze, Ch. XIII) = 'There are only Louisa and I here.' It is a feature of American colloquial speech: 'John and myself (for I) were there.' 'He went with John and myself' (for me). In older English this form could be used alone in the subject relation unaccompanied by another subject: 'But himselfe (now he) was not satisfied therwith' (Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 363, A.D. 1630-1638). This construction is receding in American English in this position, but it is well preserved in Irish English and occurs also in British English: 'MILDRED. Dear me, what's the matter with Jack? - BRIDGET. Himself (= he) is vexed about something' (Lennox Robinson, Harvest, Act II). 'Herself (= she) looked bewitching. She knew that she did' (Hugh Walpole, Harmer John, Ch. VII).
3. Demonstrative Adjectives.
These adjectives point out living beings or lifeless things. The reference often becomes clear with the help of a gesture or the situation or context. These adjectives often point of themselves backward or forward to individuals already mentioned or to be mentioned or described. When they point forward to a following explanatory phrase or clause they are called determinatives. This important group is treated in e. Some demonstrative adjectives indicate the individual by giving his place in a series or by including each individual in the series.The adjectives of this important category are: this, these; that, those; in popular speech instead of those the forms they or more commonly them, both of which were once employed in the liter ary language; the , the definite article, the weakened form of an old demonstrative adjective now represented by that; yonder, in early Modern English also yond and yon, the latter of which is still common in American popular speech; other; the same; one and the same; the identical, sometimes an equivalent of the same, sometimes differentiated in meaning from it; the very l, with the force of identical; such; in older English suchlike, now replaced by such; a, indefinite article; former, latter; either; neither; both; often also each, every, all, half, which frequently point to definite individuals and hence are not always indefinite, as they are usually classed. A number of these words often experience a change of form when used as pronouns.
Examples:
You may have this book and that one.
You may have these books and those.
Did you ever see anything finer than those (or in popular speech them or they) peonies?
I ain't saying nothing agin they (those) bars-only that they ain't as fresh as I like 'em (Hugh Walpole, Harmer John, Ch. IV).
This railway strike is a serious business.
The warres and weapons are now altered from them (now those) dayes (Barret, Theor. Warres, I, I, 4, A.D. 1598).
What is that noise?
I have just read Galsworthy's dramas.
I find these works as interesting as his novels.
He hasn't returned yet those books which I lent him last summer.
These books which I hold in my hand need binding very much.
I want to impress upon you this one thing, Don't impose upon your friends.
Among yonder hills there are some beautiful little lakes.
See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief (Shakespeare, King Lear, IV, VI, 155). Nerissa, cheer yon stranger (id., Merchant of Venice, III, II, 239).
Yon plank will do (Dialect Notes, III, 101). One of them is my brother.
I do not know the other boy.
I am using the same Latin dictionary that I used as a boy.
Captain Absolute and Ensign Beverley are one and the same person (Sheridan, The Rivals, I, 1). Even at one and the same period different writers did not always use the letters with the same value (Henry Bradley, English Place Names, p. 9).
He is wearing the identical (or the same, or the very same) hat that he wore five years ago.
I am the identical man you met twenty years ago, but I am not the same man any more.
You are the very man I was looking for.
There are few such boys as he. I have been using John's dictionary.
I wish I had such a dictionary of my own.
There is such confusion that I can't collect my thoughts. The confusion is such (predicate adjective) that I can't collect my thoughts.
We need some such (adherent adjective; see 8) rule in every school.
Some such (adherent adjective) boys can be found in every neighbor hood.
'No such (adherent adjective) offer has ever been made before, and none [that is such will ever be made again,' or more commonly 'none [that is] of the sort will ever be made again.'
'Cultivated men-professors and others [that are] such' (Herbert Spencer, Autobiography, I. p. 486), or others of the sort.
He always gives this excuse or another [that is] such, or another of the sort.
He is a bad boy.
I didn't know we had one [that is] such, or one of the sort, in the neighborhood.
These are bad boys.
You will find some [that are] such, or some sort, in of the every neighborhood.
'These are bad boys. I didn't know we had any [that are] such, or any of the sort, in the neighborhood,' or 'I hope we haven't many such, or many of the sort, in the neighborhood.'
In the last examples such is a predicate adjective and the form before it is a pronoun. In older English and sometimes still the form before such is an adherent adjective and such is a pronoun: "Tis plain enough, he was no such' (Butler, Hudibras, I, I, 44, A.D. 1663), now none such. 'Setting aside the hideous vulgarity of the well-to-do stockbrokers and other such' (W. Morris, News from Nowhere, Ch. XXII), now usually others such or others of the sort. In early Modern English, after any, many, other, we some times find the like or suchlike instead of such here: 'as for these objections or any the like' (H. Smith, Works, II, 97, A.D. 1592); 'and many the like' (Bacon, 'Of Seditions and Troubles,' Essays, A.D. 1625); 'these scriptures and many suchlike' (George Fox, Journal, p. 250, A.D. 1656).
3.a. 'EVERY' AND 'EACH.'
Be careful to use every and each properly: 'There were blackboards between the windows,' not 'There was a blackboard between each window.' We should say, 'pausing between the sentences' or 'pausing between every sentence and the next'; not 'pausing between every sentence' (George Eliot, Adam Bede).After a possessive adjective or the genitive of a noun every and each may be employed as an attributive adjective instead of being used as a pronoun before a partitive genitive: 'She indulged his every whim,' or every one of his whims. 'We indulged the baby's every whim,' or its every whim, or every one of its whims. 'She blocked his each new effort at being articulate' (Sinclair Lewis, Dodsworth, Ch. XXIV), or each of his new efforts. Compare Syntax, 10 II 2 H b (last par.).
As every totalizes (7 VII b, 3rd par.), it forms individual units into a higher unit: 'He comes every three days.' Hence its mean ing is often very comprehensive with the force of all possible: 'There is every prospect of success.'
Each and every are often used together, each individualizing and every totalizing, thus strengthening the statement by the two different points of view: 'We will examine carefully each and every complaint.'
3.b. 'BOTH,' ALL,' 'HALF,' 'EACH.'
With these words there are peculiarities of word-order: Both brothers, or both the brothers, are dead,' or 'The brothers are both dead.' Both my friends saw it,' or 'My friends both saw it.' 'All the boys saw it,' or 'The boys all saw it. All the boys were there,' or 'The boys were all there.' 'I saw them all (predicate appositive adjective) there,' or 'I saw all (pronoun) of them there.' 'Half the boys were there.' 'I had only half (predicate appositive adjective) a piece,' or 'I had only half (pronoun) of a piece.' 'I have only half (predicate appositive adjective) what I need,' or 'I have only half (pronoun) of what I need.' Each brother has done his full duty,' or 'The brothers each have done their full duty.' 'Each boy received a penny,' or 'The boys received a penny each' (or apiece, adverb = severally). 'I gave each boy a penny,' or 'I gave the boys a penny each.'3.c. 'SUCHLIKE' IN OLDER ENGLISH.
Older literary use of such like as an adherent adjective survives in popular speech: 'Panoramas and suchlike (in the literary language now replaced by such) exhibitions have delighted us as well as our fathers.' It even lingers here and there in the literary language: 'Read the records of these and other suchlike words in this little treatise' (Edward Gepp, An Essex Dialect Dictionary, Introduction, p. 4, A.D. 1920).3.d. MEANING OF 'EITHER.'
This form has two quite different meanings the older with the force of each of the two, both, now on account of its ambiguity much less used than formerly, the younger meaning with the force of the one or the other of the two, now the more common meaning: 'Much may be said on either side' (or now more commonly each side or both sides). 'I received no reply to either question' 'Both questions remained unanswered.' 'You may take either side' ( one side or the other).3.e. DETERMINATIVES.
When demonstrative adjectives and demonstrative pronouns (7 VII b) point forward to a following ex planatory phrase or clause, they are called determinatives: the book on the table'; 'the book I hold in my hand'; 'such books as instruct'; 'this book and the one on the table'; 'these books and the ones on the table'; 'this book and the one (or that one) you hold in your hand'; 'those (or in popular speech they or them) books that you lent me'; 'every book on the table.'Such, a, like that, like those, and, in loose colloquial speech, simple like are often used as qualitative determinatives to indicate kind or degree: 'We'll each of us give you such a thrashing as, a thrashing such as, or a thrashing that you'll remember.' 'Such meat as is the most dangerously earned is the sweetest.' 'He is not a man that can be trifled with,' or 'He is not a man to trifle with.' 'Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes.' 'John is a boy that you can depend upon.' 'John and William are such boys as, or boys that (with the omission of a in the plural), you can de pend upon.' 'I am working tonight amid such confusion (= con fusion so great) that I can't keep my thoughts together.' 'The confusion was such (predicate adjective) that I couldn't keep my thoughts together,' or 'The confusion was such as to render it impossible for me to keep my thoughts together.' 'Nowadays we don't get pies such as Mother used to make,' or like those (or colloquially simple like) Mother used to make.
In older English and sometimes still, this or those is used instead of such as a qualitative determinative or demonstrative to indicate a kind or degree: 'I have not from your eyes that (now usually such) gentleness as I was wont to have' (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, I, I, 33). 'The town was reduced to those (now usually such or so great) straights that, if not relieved, it must have sur rendred in two daies time' (Luttrell, Brief Rel., I, 567, A.D. 1689). 'Katia was a great fight. It's those (now usually such) fights (the odds against us) that have really daunted the Germans' (Sir Walter Raleigh, Letter to Lady Wemyss, Jan. 13, 1917). Those is still regularly so used after the indefinite pronoun one: 'Mrs. William Morrison was one of those people who always speak decisively' (L. W. Montgomery, Chronicles of Avonlea, Little Jocelyn).
3.f. 'SUCH' WITH THE FORCE OF 'THAT,' 'THOSE,' 'THIS,' 'THESE,' 'THE.'
In older English, such often lost the idea of a particular kind and pointed to definite persons or things, just like that, those, this, these, without any difference in meaning: 'That the reader, therefore, may not conceive the least ill opinion of such a (= this) person, we shall not delay a moment in rescuing his character from the imputation of this guilt' (Fielding, Tom Jones, Book VII, Ch. XV). But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things' (Romans, II, 2), here with the force of this thing, or simply this or it, for the refer ence is to a definite thing, namely, passing judgment upon others, mentioned in the preceding verse. Thow shalt conceyve a child And his name shalle zou Ihesu calle... Suche (=these) wordis were seid to Mary' (Cursor Mundi, 10869, about A.D. 1300). Such, followed by a relative as-clause, is still often used with almost the force of those, but it has a meaning a little more indefinite than those which differentiation has preserved it: 'Major Pendennis spent the autumn passing from house to house of such country friends as were at home to receive him' (Thackeray, Pendennis, II, Ch. XXX).Similarly, such is often used instead of this referring back to a preceding noun where the reference is indefinite: "A gratuity awarded to any clerk shall be estimated according to the period during which such clerk has served' (Act 41 Vict. e. 52). We now often prefer the, this, or that here to such: 'That there is a void in a millionaire's life is not disproved by anyone showing that a number of millionaires do not recognize such (or the, this, or that) void.'
3.g. INTENSIVE 'SUCH.'
Such or such a is often used as an absolute intensive without an expressed comparison, indicating in a general way a high degree of a quality, sometimes standing alone before a noun, sometimes followed by an adjective which expresses the quality more accurately: 'I have never seen such a storm,' or more accurately such a terrible storm, or with the adverb so instead of the adjective such: so terrible a storm. The adjective construction is the usual one before a plural noun: 'I have never seen such children,' or more accurately such good children or such bad children.3.h. REDUNDANCY.
In older English, same is used redundantly after a demonstrative this, these, that, those, yon: If this same palmer will me lead from hence' (Scott, Marmion, I, XXV). This usage is still common in popular speech, especially in Negro dialect: 'I'm gwine ter larrup that same Mr. Man' (Joel Chandler Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus, p. 35). In current popular speech here and there are similarly used: 'Look at this here (or this 'ere) book!' 'Do it thisa (= this here) way!' 'I never saw it done thata (= that there) way.'3.i. EMOTIONAL 'THAT' AND 'THIS.
That and this are often employed unaccompanied by a gesture and marked by a peculiar tone of voice expressing praise or censure, pleasure or displeasure: 'And then I sit and think of that dear wife of mine that I lost a quarter of a century ago' (De Morgan, Joseph Vance, Ch. XXXIII). 'Do you think the girls would consider it narrow if I asked them to stop that dancing and whooping' (Sidgwick, Severins, Ch. III). 'Upon my word, of all the horrid men that I ever heard of this publisher of yours is the worst' (R. Haggard, Meeson's Will).3.j. 'YE.'
The definite article the is sometimes still for archaic effect written ye, the y representing older and hence pronounced th: 'ye old town.'4. Numeral Adjectives.
They indicate number. There are three classes:4.a. CARDINAL NUMERAL ADJECTIVES.
They are employed in counting: two (or in older English twain or tway) men,' 'the first three years,' 'three dollars,' 'four dollars,' 'fifty-five dollars,' 'one hundred and fifty dollars'; 'three years and a half,' or 'three and a half years'; 'one pound and a half,' or 'one and a half pounds'; 'thirty-one and two-thirds inches,' 'thirty-one and three-eighths inches,' etc., but quarter is always uninflected as adjective: 'thirty one and three-quarter inches.' 'The house cost a hundred thousand dollars.' 'Two million copies of the book have been sold.' 'I have a hundred and one (or a thousand and one) things to look after.' In early Modern English it was usual to say one-and-twenty, one-and thirty, etc.Other adjective forms often take the place of the regular cardi nal adjectives: a dozen eggs,' 'two dozen eggs,' 'three score years.' Odd (or sometimes and odd) is added to a cardinal to indicate an indefinite surplus, cardinal and odd (or and odd) together forming a compound numeral: 'There were fifty odd (or and odd) boys there' (i.e. between fifty and sixty boys). The book has five hundred odd (or and odd) pages.' The indefinite adjective some (10 6) is often placed before the cardinal to indicate the idea of approximation: The club consists of some forty members.' These numerals are called cardinals (from Latin cardo 'hinge') because they are the most important words of number on which the others hinge.
The numerals one, only, sole, are used in many idiomatic expres sions to indicate oneness: 'Some óne man must direct.' 'No one man can do it.' 'I don't know any one house that has so many good points as this.' 'He has the one fault that he is not punc tual.' 'There is óne napkin too many' (one napkin which is not needed). This line has a (reduced form of one) foot too much' (Note to Merchant of Venice, II, VII, 2, in Clarendon Press ed.; more commonly a foot too many). 'He is an only child.' 'This is the only instance known.' 'This is my one and only hope.' 'That was his sóle reason.'
4.b. ORDINAL NUMERAL ADJECTIVES.
They denote position or order in a series: 'the first, second, third, last day of the month.' 'He had now attained his twenty-fifth (in older English five-and twentieth) year.' 'After the twenty-somethingth attempt to go to sleep I decided to lie where I fell.' From another point of view these adjectives may be classed as demonstratives (10 3).In early Modern English, fift, sixt, twelft, were still in use, but were later replaced by fifth, sixth, twelfth, to bring the form of these ordinals into harmony with that of the other ordinals from fourth onwards. In Middle English, French second supplanted English other. The older English ordinal survives in 'every other day.'
4.c. MULTIPLICATIVES.
They indicate multiplication, twofold, tenfold, etc.: 'a twofold return for your money,' 'with twofold care,' 'a sixfold increase,' 'a double portion,' 'a double row of policemen.' "The glottis is twofold' (predicate adjective). 'I'll return it to you threefold' (objective predicate; 8, 4th par.). Multiplicatives are most commonly adverbs: 'The fee was tenfold what I expected.' 'It repaid me threefold.' 'They outnumbered us a hundredfold. It is tenfold, a thousandfold, worse.' 'He is double (or twice) my age.' 'He now feels doubly guilty.' Double is used also as a noun: "Ten is the double of five.'5. Relative Adjectives.
There are two groups:5.a. DEFINITE 'WHICH'
This form often points backward to a definite antecedent: 'We traveled together as far as Paris, at which place we parted.'5.b. INDEFINITE RELATIVE ADJECTIVES.
Which, what ( more in definite than which), which(so)ever, what (so)ever, are widely used as relative adjectives without definite reference. Although these adjectives never refer to a definite antecedent, they are genuine conjunctives in that they link the clause in which they stand to the principal proposition. They introduce a substantive clause, i.e. a noun clause in the relation of a subject or object of the principal verb or an appositive to a noun: 'It is not known which, or what, course he will pursue' (subject clause). 'I do not know which, or what, course he will pursue' (object clause). The question which, or what, course he will pursue (appositive clause) has not yet been settled.' 'I will approve whichever, or whatever, course you decide upon' (object clause). 'I have lost what little confidence in him I ever had' (object clause). 'He was not a man given to much talking, but what little he did say (subject clause) was generally well said.' 'He has very few books, but what few he has (object clause) he reads and rereads.' The object clause may be the object of a preposition, preposition and object clause forming together a unit called a prepositional clause: 'You can rely upon whatever promises he may make.' 'Let's hold on to what certainties we can.' The adjectives in -ever and simple which are used also in ad verbial concessive clauses: 'I am going to pursue this course, whatever sacrifices it may demand.' 'He will find difficulties whichever course he may take.' 'Sometimes, turn my head which way I would I seemed to see the gold' (George Eliot, Silas Marner, Ch. XIX).In older English, whether was often used here with the force of which of the two: 'Yet whether side was victor note (57 4 A e) be ghest' (Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V, VII, III, A.D. 1590) = 'Yet which side [of the two] was victor could not be determined.'
6. Indefinite Adjectives.
They are: a, an; not a, no (in older English none before a vowel: 'to none effect,' now 'to no effect'), nary (popular for ne'er a, from never a); all; any; ary (popular for e'er a) any; this and (or or) that; this, that, and (or or) the other; every; a(n)or so; several; some; some or another or some or other; one or another or one or other; one or the other; many; many a; the many; a many, now archaic or poetic though once common, but the modified forms a good many, a great many, are still common; numerous; innumerable; countless; myriad; various; other, an other; a certain, certain; divers (archaic); sundry (archaic); all and sundry (archaic); considerable (of things immaterial; in American colloquial speech also of things material); much; more or, in older English where the reference is to number, mo or moe (Old English mã); little, a little; less; few, a few; enough; sufficient; plenty, plentier, plentiest, now most common in the predicate relation, but in general obsolete in adjective use in the literary language, though common in all adjective functions in dialect, especially Scotch and Irish; such (10 3 f); such and such, such or such.Examples:
There was a (an old) man here to see you.
Not a bóy was absent.
Not a múscle of his face moved.
Tibbits is not a (= nó, i.e. quite other than a) scholar, a genius (Lytton, Caxtons, IV, Ch. III).
I am nó (= not a, i.e. quite other than a) genius (ib.). I have no sécret. I am nót a (= nó, i.e. quite other than a) quack
(Shaw, The Doctor's Dilemma, I, 32).
This is nó (nót a, i.e. quite other than a) part of my plan. I am in nó hurry = I am not in any hurry.
Nó (not ány) occasion could be more appropriate than this.
He did it in nó (= hardly ány) time.
All boys are not alike.
It took all the strength I had to do it.
I haven't any money left.
There aren't any boys in our neighborhood. She takes larning easier than ary young un ever I seed (Lucy Furman, The Glass Window, Ch. III).
Truth must not be measured by the convenience of this or that man (Berkeley).
Idle people jot down their idle thoughts, and then post them to this, that, and the other newspaper.
She spends a week or so every summer with her friend.
Several books were damaged.
All of us in our several (= respective) stations have our work to do.
Each has his several (individual) ideal (Concise Oxford Dictionary). The joint and several (= separate) efforts of all three may be safely left to the contemptuous indifference of the nation (London Times).
Some people believe it.
We have some good butter today.
We went some miles out of our way.
They were some little (or considerable) distance ahead of us.
They were some fifty yards away from us.
Hardly a day passes in which we do not have some visitor or other.
Some idiots or other have been shooting all night.
Some time or other we may be at leisure.
For some cause or other (or another) he was not at home.
Every man has, one time or other (or another), a little Rubicon.
Most applicants are deficient in one or other qualification.
You must go one way or the other.
He has helped many men, many a man.
Of the many men I have met this summer he is the most interesting.
Many (predicate adjective) are the afflictions of the righteous.
(Psalms, XXXIV, 19).
Many's the tale he has told us.
Your gentle, genial letter is as kind and indulgent to me as a favorite relative, and my thanks in return are many (predicate adjective) and most fervid (James Whitcomb Riley, Letter to Frank S. Sherman, Jan. 8, 1891).
They have not shed a many tears, Dear eyes, since first I knew them well (Tennyson, The Miller's Daughter, 219).
A great many mistakes have been made.
The plan has numerous advantages.
His visit to the old home called up myriad (innumerable or countless) scenes of his childhood.
There were riots in various places.
I met him the other day on the street.
I am hunting a few other examples of this construction.
The little prince's education teaches him that he is other (predicate adjective) than you (Meredith, Egoist).
I do not want him other (objective predicate) than he is.
I will do it another time.
That is quite another thing.
There was there a certain John Smith.
I felt a certain reluctance to do it.
There was an incredible frivolity about her sister at certain moments.
The old gentleman made divers (now more commonly several) in effectual efforts to get up (Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, Ch. LXVI, A.D. 1751).
There are sundry (more commonly various) weighty reasons why I should go.
'He, this school autocrat, gathered all and sundry reins into the hollow of his one hand' (Charlotte Brontë, Villette, Ch. XV), more commonly each and every rein.
He has considerable influence.
He has invested considerable (colloquial American) money in it.
He has much patience, land, property.
Soul, thou hast much (now many) goods laid up for many years (Luke, XII, 19).
They taught much (now many) people (Acts, XI, 26).
Older Much oats is grown here' is now replaced by 'Large quantities of (or in colloquial speech lots of) oats are grown here,' as much cannot now stand before a plural mass noun that requires a plural verb.
Send out moe (now more) horses (Shakespeare, Macbeth, V, II, 34).
We need one more (= additional) teacher.
We need two more teachers.
He has little patience, land, property.
He needs a little patience, a little money, a little salt.
I can do with less money, less clothes, less troops.
The public wants more action and less (better than fewer, for here the idea of totality is more prominent than that of separate individuals) words (review of a drama).
We can get along with one less (after the analogy of more) teacher.
Have you enough money with you?
There was just sufficient water for drinking. 'They (i.e. the factory girls) can earn so much when work is plenty'
(Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, Ch. IX), now usually plentiful. Poets would be plentier (J. R. Lowell, My Study Windows, 22).
Although there are plenty (now usually in the literary language plenty of) other ideals that I should prefer (R. L. Stevenson, Inland Voyage, 8).
There was plenty (in literary English plenty of) food of all descriptions (Irish English).
I will meet you at this or such other place as shall be deemed proper.
Such and such a cause has such and such an effect.
Such and such causes have such and such effects.
The question which we contend is of so transcendent moment is, not whether such or such knowledge is of worth, but what is its relative worth? (Spencer, Education).
6.a. MEANS OF IMPARTING FEELING.
Feeling may be imparted to the statement by placing ever so before certain of these adjectives: 'I've taken ever so much trouble, but it's no good' (W. E. Collinson). 'I'm afraid I've made ever so many mistakes' (id.).6.b. AMERICAN 'SOME' WITH FORCE OF DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE.
In American slang some is widely employed as a descriptive adjective expressing a high degree of excellence: 'She is some girl.' Often ironically: 'That is some car.' This intensive use of some has developed out of the literary language, where this force is often to be observed: 'a Person of good Sense and some Learning' (Steele, Spectator, No. 106, par. 5). In American speech this force has been extended to the adverb.6.c. FORM OF INDEFINITE ARTICLE.
The indefinite article a or an, the reduced form of the numeral one, has preserved the n of the original word only before a vowel sound: a boat; a house; a union (yünyən); not a one (wun); but an apple; an heir (with silent h).There is fluctuation of usage before an initial h where the syllable is unaccented. In the literary language of England it has long been usual to place an here before the h: an histórical char acter; an hotél; etc. At the present time, however, this usage is not universal in England. The British scholar H. W. Fowler in his Modern English Usage even calls it pedantic. In America it is usual to employ a here, although some follow the prevailing British usage. The difference of usage here rests upon an older difference of pronunciation. In America, Ireland, Scotland, and the extreme northern part of England initial h has been preserved. In the English dialects it has for the most part been lost, but in standard English under the influence of the written language and Scotch and Irish usage it has been restored. For a long time, however, it was pronounced weakly or not at all in unaccented syllables, which gave rise to the spelling an in 'an histórical char acter,' 'an hotél,' etc. Older spelling, such as 'an hundred crowns' (Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, V, II, 128), 'an hill' (Matthew, V, 14), shows that in early Modern English initial h was not always pronounced in England even in accented syllables.
7. Interrogative Adjectives.
They are: what (indefinite) and which (more definite). Like other adjectives, they modify nouns referring to persons or things: 'What boy (or 'boys') in our neighborhood would do such a thing?' 'What (how much) pudding is there left?' 'What price are eggs today?' 'What (pred. adj.) are eggs today?' 'What (of what nature) is the real situation?' 'What (how great) is the extent of the damage?' 'Which book (or 'boy') did you finally choose?' In indirect questions (7 VI b): 'I asked her what girls were going along with her.' 'I asked him what the real situation was.' 'I asked him what book (or 'books') I should read.' These indirect interrogatives are interrogative conjunctive adjectives (18 B), i.e. they bind the clause to the principal proposition.8. Proper Adjectives.
Proper adjectives, i.e. adjectives derived from a proper noun, often do not denote a kind or a condition, but are limiting adjectives, identifying a being or thing: 'a Harvard student,' 'the United States flag,' 'the German universities,' 'the English navy,' 'the Chicago post office,' 'the Presbyterian church,' 'a Shakespearean scholar,' 'the Smith residence,' etc. On the other hand, they, of course, often have the force of descriptive adjectives: 'very clever, with a little of the Tennysonian leaven in them' (Longfellow's comment on Matthew Arnold's poems). 'The acting of Kean is Shakespearean' (Keats). 'He has Smith pluck and energy' (words of Mr. Smith, speaking of his oldest son). Notice that proper adjectives begin with a capital. They, of course, are written with a small letter when they lose their specific application: 'hermetic seal,' 'quixotic sentiments,' 'china dishes,' 'italic type,' etc.As can be seen by the examples, proper adjectives are of two kinds true adjectives and proper nouns used as adjectives. The latter class is quite common: 'the great Mississippi flood of 1927, Rocky Mountain goats,' 'the Rockefeller Foundation,' 'the Field Museum' (at Chicago). 'He was very Herries (family name) in some things: in his passion for England - he had all the Herries ignorant contempt for foreigners' (Hugh Walpole, Rogue Herries, p. 194). As seen in the last example, proper nouns are used as adjectives not only attributively but also predicatively.
