A Dictionary of Cont..

after in in after years, and down in a down
stroke. Ten or twenty years ago many editors
would not accept above as an adjective, as in rhe
above remarks and insisted on making this the
remarks above. Above is now established in
the adjective position. But we cannot today say
the below remarks. This is a battle that each
adverb must win for itself.
One might set up a system of English grammar
in which an adjective was defined as a qualifying
word that can stand immediately before
a noun. One could then go on to discuss other
positions in which either an adjective or an adverb
could be used, sometimes with exactly the
same meaning and sometimes with a difference
in meaning. In this way the whole problem of
adjectives and adverbs would be made much
simpler. But this is not the definition now used
in dictionaries or in teaching foreign languages,
and it would be confusing to those who are
already familiar with the accepted concepts. In
this book we are, therefore, following the standard
definition of an adjective. But this involves
us in a certain amount of hair splitting and
sometimes presents us with problems that simply
can’t be solved.
2. The second position in which an adjective
may stand is immediately after a linking verb
or a verb of motion, as in the baby is asleep,
he came here young and confident. An adjective
in this position is called a predicate adjective.
But with any kind of intransitive verb, this is
also the secondary position for an adverb (see
sentence adverbs) and if an adjective is used
predicatively often enough it develops an adverbial
force. Sometimes it is impossible to say
whether a certain word, such as slow, is an adjective
or an adverb when it is used in this position.
There are a number of adjectives that begin
witha-, such as asleep, awake, afire, alive, aware,
which are used in this position but not ordinarily
before the noun they qualify. For example, we
say the man is alive but not the alive man. This
a once meant in and these words were once
prepositional phrases. They have come to be felt
as single words but they are still used as a
phrase would be used. An adjective phrase may
occasionally precede its noun and these words,
too, if they are qualified and form part of a
group, may be used in this position, as in the
very much alive man. But constructions of this
kind are always felt to be exceptional and not
according to the natural order of words.
These peculiar a- adjectives can be used alone
in any position that an adjective can be used in,
except before the noun they qualify. But there
are a number of adverbs that begin with a-, such
as away, abroad, astray, and that also can only
be used in exactly the same positions. It is
sometimes difficult to say whether a certain
word, such as adrift, is an adjective or an adverb.
For this reason some grammarians call all
these words, including afraid and alive, adverbs.
Those who recognize some as adjectives and
some as adverbs have to depend on the meaning
of the word to establish the difference. If the
381 position of adjectives
word names a quality which a thing might possess
it is an adjective. If it names the time, place,
or manner of an action it is an adverb.
Adjectives may be used after linking verbs
and after verbs of motion. A linking verb is any
verb that is used to mean be, become, or seem.
For example, grown means become and is a
linkinn verb followed bv adiectives in an elderlv
mother spider grown gaunt and fierce and gray.
Most linking verbs cannot be qualified by adverbs
and there is usually no doubt that a following
adjective really is an adjective and
qualifies the subject of the verb rather than the
verb itself, as in the fudge turned hard. See
linking verbs.
This is not true of verbs which name motions.
After a verb of motion, a word that is both an
adjective and an adverb will usually be felt as
an adverb qualifying the verb, as in he moved
slow. But there are many words that are used
only as adjectives and never as adverbs. These
may be used after a verb of motion to qualify
the subject. For example, trembling describes
the hare and not the limping in the hare limped
trembling through the frozen grass. Similarly,
in do not go gentle into that good-night the adjective
gentle necessarily attaches itself to the
unexpressed subject you, and the sentence takes
the meaning “do not be gentle when you go.”
The verb appear may be followed by an adjective
because it is being used as a linking verb
meaning “seem,” as in he appears happy. Or it
may be followed by adjectives because it is being
used as a verb of motion meaning “come into
sight,” as in Mont Blanc appears, still, snowy,
and serene.
The verbs to be born and to die are treated in
English, and in many other languages, as verbs
of motion. We say he was born lucky and he
died rich.
3. An adjective may also stand immediately
after a noun which is the object of a verb, as
empty in we found the cage empty and clean in
she swept the room clean. An adjective standing
in this position is called a factitive adjective or
an object complement and has a very different
function from an adherent adjective. These sentences
do not mean we found the empty cage or
she swept the clean room. This adjective is actually
closely related to the verb, as if we had said
we found-empty the cage and she swept-clean
the room, and so approaches the function of an
adverb. It is perhaps more closely related to the
verb than an adverb would be. Adverbs too may
stand in this position. They show when or how
an action takes place but do not affect the verb
idea itself. Whether a word in this position is an
adjective or an adverb always affects the meaning
of the sentence, but it is sometimes impossible
to say which function a particular word is
supposed to have, as wrong and hard in he made
the clock wrong and she boiled the eggs hard.
4. Finally, an adjective may stand after the
noun it qualifies, as in geraniums (red) and delphiniums
(blue). An adjective in this position is
called an appositive adjective.