The structure of adjective phrases

1. The structure of adjective phrases Kuiper and Allan Chapter 7.1.4

2. Adjective phrase • Examples a. quite old b. moderately expensive c. quite moderately long in the arms

3. Representing the structure of adjective phrases adjective phrase adjective adverb phrase degree adverb quite old

4. adjective phrase prepositional phrase adverb phrase noun phrase adverb phrase preposition degree adverb adverb determiner adjective noun long in quite the arms moderately

5. Constituents of adjective phrases • Modifiers • adverb phrases (including degree adverbs) • e.g. moderately expensive • prepositional phrases • e.g. long in the arm

6. Adjectives in attributive and predicate position • attributive position, e.g. the red sky • sequencing restrictions • predicate position, e.g. The sky is red.

7. Application The choice between attributive and predicative adjectives can have an impact on descriptive writing. Look, for example, at the following description of an Icelandic warrior. ...he was tall, strong, and skilled in arms, even-tempered and very shrewd, ruthless with his enemies and always reliable in matters of importance. from Njal's Saga translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson

8. Exercise Identify the adjective phrases in the following passage and underline their heads. In other ways he was a very hard man. He was big and rather clumsy-looking, with big heavy bones and long flat muscles, and he had a big, expressionless, broken-nosed face. Yet he moved with surprising ease and silence as well as having a gift for stillness. from A Soldier's Tale by M.K. Joseph

9. Adverb phrases • adverb as head • very similar to adjective phrases • can together be called AP