A Dictionary of Cont..

adjectives 14
way, as burning hot, howling drunk. We may
still say dead tired and dead certain. Some
words of this kind are now in use but are
under attack, such as mighty fine, real clever,
awful nice, right smart, sure good. Whether
they remain standard English or not will depend
on who uses them and who doesn’t. There is no
question of logic, or of grammatical principles,
involved. If the respected members of the community
use these words, the words are respectable,
and if they do not, the words are not.
(See the individual words.)
adjectives as nouns. Nouns may be made from
adjectives, or adjectives may be used as if they
were nouns. Both kinds of words can be seen
in the sentence by Fielding, we moderns are to
the ancients what the poor are to the rich. The
words moderns and ancients are made from
adjectives but they are true nouns, if only
because they have been given the ending s
which does not belong to the adjective. A
great many nouns are formed from adjectives
in this way, such as news, slacks, heroics,
economics. In the case. of moderns and ancients
the words also have a singular form and the
plural form can be used with a numeral, as in
any modern is worth a hundred ancients. Words
that have both a singular and a plural form
are nouns. Words that have been formed from
adjectives by adding s are also nouns, even
when they do not have the two forms. Neither
of these things is true of the words rich and
poor. They have the simple form of the adjective.
And we cannot speak of an individual
one or use the words with a number term
unless we supply the missing noun man, as in
this poor man and three rich men. Adjectives
that appear to be nouns because the noun they
qualify is not expressed are said to be “adjectives
used absolutely.” When the meaning of
the word depends upon the context, as in the
same, the like, the latter, some grammarians
say that the adjective is being used “pronominally.”
As we have seen, a noun can be qualified
by an adjective even when the noun is not
expressed. The fact that we can use an adjective
before a word, as in the miserable poor,
the fortunate rich, does not prove that the
word is a noun. The adjectives, miserable and
fortunate, may apply to an unexpressed noun
such as men. On the other hand, a noun cannot
be qualified by an adverb and an adjective
can. The fact that adverbs can be used before
such words, as in the miserably poor, the
extremely rich, shows that they are still felt as
adjectives. Sometimes this is the only test of
whether or not a word has become a noun.
Most of the adjectives that are used as
nouns either (1) name a quality, such as the
small, the pleasant, the new, and refer to
everything that has that quality, or (2) name
a group of human beings having a certain
characteristic, such as the wise, the powerful,
the unborn. Adjectives in the first class, that
name a quality, are always treated as singulars
although they refer to countless examples of
the quality. At one time such words were felt
as plurals. Pope said, be not the first by whom
the new are tried. But today we say the best
is the cheapest in the long run, the unknown
is always frightening, the familiar is comfortable.
Words of the second class also name a
quality. But they refer to a group of human
beings who are identified by this characteristic.
They do not refer to the quality itself or to the
individuals as instances of the quality. Words
of this kind are usually treated as plurals, as
in the lament, the best lack all conviction
while the worst are full of passionate intensity
and in there the wicked cease from troubling
and there the wear? are at rest. Bums uses the
singular form in the rigid righteous is a fool,
but this is very rare.
The group that an adjective identifies is not
necessarily as broad, or as timeless, as the
rich, the poor, the wicked, the weary. It may
represent an actual, countable, number of
people, as it does in the wounded were removed.
When a word has this limited meaning
it may be used with a numeral in speaking of
some members of the group, as in twenty
wounded were removed. When the word is
unlimited in its application it can only be used
in speaking about the entire group. It cannot
be used with a numeral or in speaking of
some members of the group. We cannot say
five wise or five foolish.
There are ten adjectives which are also used
as nouns to name a nationality group. We
speak of the British, the English, the Irish, the
Cornish, the Spanish, the Welsh, the Scotch,
the Dutch, the French. and the Manx. (In
speaking of other nationality groups we use
words which are primarily nouns, such as
the Poles, the Swedes, the Chinese.) Formerly,
the ten adjective-nouns could be qualified by
a numeral, as in twenty thousand Cornish bold,
but this is no longer true. In present-day
English these words always represent the entire
nation. We may speak of the Irish or the
French but not of six Irish or six French. In
order to speak of the individuals we must
introduce a true noun, such as man, woman,
person.
There are a few adjectives in English that
represent a single individual, such as the accused,
the departed, the beloved. These words
do not have plural forms and under some circumstances
they may be qualified by adverbs,
as in dearly beloved and the lately departed.
This makes them adjectives according to the
definitions adopted in this dictionary and an
exception to the rule that the English adjective
is used to indicate groups and not individuals.
Under a different system of definitions these
words could be classed as singular nouns. But
another system would have other problems and
other types of words would have to be listed as
exceptions to the rules.
Nouns may be used before other nouns as
qualifiers, as sea in sea wall and horse in