THE A D J E C T I V E :

1. THE ADJECTIVE: Its Grammatical Categories

2. The English adjective from the morphological point of view has neither number, nor case, nor gender distinctions. Some adjectives have, however, degrees of comparison. Thus, the English adjective differs materially not only from such highly inflected languages as Rus­sian, Latin and German, where the adjectives have a rather com­plicated system offorms, but even from Modern French, which has preserved number and gender distinctions to the present day.

3. In most cases an adjective can be recognized only by taking into account semantic and syntactical phenomena. But in some cases, for certain adjectives, derivative suffixes are significant, too. Among these are the suffix -less (useless), the suffix -like (ghostlike), and a few others. Occasionally, however, though a suffix often appears in adjectives, it cannot be taken as a certain proof of the word being an adjective, because the suffix may also make part of a word belonging to another part of speech.

4. Thus, the suffix -fulwould seem to be typically adjectival (beautiful, useful, purposeful, meaningful). But alongside of these it can be also found in spoonful, mouthful, handful, etc., which are nouns.

5. The only morphological problem concerning adjectives is that of degrees of comparison. DEGREES OF COMPARISON The first question which arises is how many degrees of comparison the English adjective has. The three forms of an English adjective large, larger, (the) largest correspond to three degrees of comparison: pos­itive, comparative, and superlative. The other point of view is that only the latter two are degrees of comparison (comparative and superlative), whereas the first (large) does not express any idea of comparison and is therefore not a degree of comparison at all.

6. It is well known that not every adjective has degrees of comparison. This may depend on two factors. One of these is not grammatical, but semantic. Since degrees of comparison express a difference of degree in the same property, only those adjectives admit of degrees of comparison which denote properties capable of appearing in different degrees. Thus, it is obvious that, for example, the adjective middle has no degrees of comparison.

7. The same might be said about blind, deaf, dead, etc. It is sometimes stated that qualitative adjectives form degrees of comparison, whereas relative adjectives (wooden, woolen, Asian, orien­tal) do not. But the division of adjectives into qualitative and relative is not grammatical but semantic, and some qualitative adjectives have no degrees of comparison either (perfect, main, etc).

8. A more complex problem in the sphere ofdegrees ofcomparison is that ofthe formations more difficult, (the) most difficult, or more beautiful, (the) most beautiful. The question is the following: is more difficult an analytical comparative degree of the adjective difficult? In that case the word more would be an auxiliary word serving to make up that analytical form, and the phrase would belong to the sphere ofmorphology. Oris more difficult a free phrase, not dif­ferent in its essential character from the phrase very difficult or somewhat difficult? In that case the adjective difficult would have no degrees ofcomparison at all, and the whole phrase would be a syntactical formation.

9. The traditional view held both by practical and theoretical grammarians until recently was that phrases ofthis type were analytical degrees ofcomparison. Still however, the view has been put forward that they do not es­sentially differ from phrases ofthe type very difficult, which, of course, nobody would think of treating as analytical forms.

10. The arguments that may be put forward in favour ofone and the other view are the following. (+)The view that formations ofthe type more difficult are ana­lytical degrees ofcomparison may be supported by the following considerations: (1) The actual meaning offormations like more dif­ficult, (the) most difficult does not differ from that of larger, (the) largest. (2) Qualitative adjectives, like difficult, express properties which may be present in different degrees, and therefore they are bound to have degrees of com­parison.

11. (-)The argument against such formations being analytical degrees of comparison would run roughly like this. (1) The words more and most have the same meaning in these phrases as in other phrases in which they may appear, e. g. more time, most people, etc.

12. (2) Alongside of the phrases more difficult, (the) most difficult there are also the phrases less difficult, (the) least difficult, and there seems to be no sufficient reason for treating the two sets ofphrases in different ways, saying that more difficult is an analytical form, while less difficult is not. Besides, the very fact that more and less, (the) most and (the) least can equally well combine with difficult, would seem to show that they are free phrases and none of them is an analytical form.

13. SPECIAL MEANINGS OF THE SUPERLATIVE The basic meaning of the superlative is that of a degree of a pro­perty surpassing all the other objects mentioned or implied. However, there are cases when the meaning is different and merely a very high degree of a property is meant, without any com­parison with other objects possessing that property.

14. Thus, in the sentence It is with the greatest pleasure that we learn of... the phrase the greatest pleasure does not mean that that particular pleasure was greater than all other pleasures, but merely that it was very great. The same may be said of the sentence In Brown's room was the greatest disorder. This meaning of the form is usually described as the elative. A similar phenomenon is also found in Russian: с величайшим удовольствием; величайшего ума человек.

15. The forms of the superlative degree are never used with the indefinite article. The phrase “most + adjective", on the other hand, may be used with the indefinite article and expresses in that case a very high degree of a property, without implying any comparison, e.g. a most satisfactory result. The meaning of the phrase is thus the same as that of the superlative degree in its elative application.

16. To be continued.