Теоретическая грамматика английского языка (Theoretical Grammar of the English language)

Thus, the system of articles in English is described as one consisting of three articles: the definite article expresses the categorial meaning of identification: the indefinite expresses relative generalization and the zero article expresses absolute generalization.

Adjective as a Part of Speech

The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of а substance. It means that each adjective used in the text denotes some characteristics of the noun referent (material, colour, etc.). According to Prof. Blokh, it follows from this that adjectives do not have a full nominative value like nouns (Blokh, 2000).

Adjectives are distinguished by a specific combinability with nouns, which they modify, usually in pre-position, and occasionally in post-position; by a combinability with link-verbs, by a combinability with modifying adverbs. In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an attribute and a predicative. Of the two, the more specific function of the adjective is that of an attribute, since the function of a predicative can be performed by other parts of speech (noun, pronoun, numeral).

Substantivization of the adjective. Also adjectives can perform the syntactic functions characteristic of the noun: subject or object. Adjectives in these cases are used with the definite article and usually mean a lot of people: The rich and the poor will never understand each other.

To the derivational features of adjectives belong a number of suffixes and prefixes of which the most important are: -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic; un-, in-, pre-. Among the adjectival affixes should also be named the prefix a-, constitutive for the stative subclass.

English adjectives have the category of comparison. Semantically all the adjectives fall into two subclasses: qualititative adjectives (showing the quality of the substance (big, good, beautiful, etc.) which can form the degrees of comparison, and relative adjectives (expressing a characteristic through a relation to an object: wooden, industrial, etc.) which do not form the degrees of comparison. However, in actual speech the described principle of distinction is not at all strictly observed. On the one hand, some qualitative adjectives can denote such qualities of substances which are incompatible with the idea of degrees of comparison. Here refer adjectives like extinct, immobile, deaf, final, fixed, etc. On the other hand, many relative adjectives form degrees of comparison, transforming the denoted relative property of a substance into such as can be graded quantitatively, e.g.: of a military design – of а less military design – of а тоrе military design (Blokh, 2000).

In order to overcome the demonstrated lack of rigour in the differentiation of qualitative and relative adjectives, Prof. M.Y. Blokh introduced an additional linguistic distinction which is more adaptable to the chances of usage. The suggested distinction is based on the evaluative function of adjectives. Thus, all the adjectives can be used either evaluatively or specificatively, depending on the context. Prof. Blokh states that it emphasizes the fact that the morphological category of comparison (comparison degrees) is potentially represented in the whole class of adjectives, and not only in the class of qualitative adjectives.