Simply speaking, the ADJECTIVE -- ultimately derived from the Late Latin adjectīvum meaning "to add" and "to throw"–- describes, clarifies, or qualifies. ADJECTIVES are the gossips that Bonnie Raitt assures us have Something To Talk About. Without apology, they see fit to tell us all we need to know about a noun or noun phrase1. Psst! They summon you to them before using an arsenal of more than 1100 words to describe, clarify or qualify size, origin, condition, number, shape, color, attractiveness, and age. They strive to remain positive in form, but sometimes they just can’t help themselves, infusing drama with comparatives (-er) or going for broke with superlatives (-est).
But it doesn’t end there because in the abode of the ADJECTIVES (right next door to the Adverbs) lives: attributive adjectives, predicative adjectives, postpositive adjectives, nominal adjectives, and absolute adjectives.
1A noun phrase is one that includes a noun accompanied by modifiers, determiners (the, a, his) and/or complements. The best way to identify a noun phase is to replace it with a pronoun (he, his, she, her, they, their, it, we, our, etc.).
So even if the Zac Brown Band is stuck in Colder Weather and Tracy Chapman wonders if you got A Fast Car; U2 cautions you not to let a Beautiful Day get away.
An adjective immediately following its noun/noun phrase is a POSTPOSITIVE ADJECTIVE while one following its noun/noun phrase and a verb is a PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVE.
Tell Me Something Good, Rufus & Chaka Khan demands postpositively, while Sugarland marvels about Something More and Martha Wainwright tearfully mourns about Everything Wrong. Still there’s little doubt that in celebrating a new day, a new life, Nina Simone is predicatively Feeling Good.
A NOMINAL ADJECTIVE is used to describe a class attribute of a people (the poor), a place (the green), or a thing or idea (the good), and shares some traits of nouns and some of adjectives.
A NOMINAL ADJECTIVE is also be used to describe nationalities as in David Bowie’s Young Americans.
A NOMINAL ADJECTIVE’s noun traits include the presence of a determiner (often ‘the’ definite article) and may themselves be modified by adjectives. (Billy Joel’s Only the Good Die Young,’ incorporates attributive adjective + determiner + nominal adjective + verb + predicative adjective.)
Their adjectival traits also allow them to take on intensive adjectives (very, for example) and/or the comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) forms. Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love of All incorporates a determiner + nominal adjective (superlative) + noun + preposition + predicative adjective, where the preposition + predicative adjective (of+all) define a class of love.
An ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVE is an adjective that expresses an idea that cannot usually be intensified, compared or graded. Technically, the ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVE should not have comparative or superlative forms. In other words, deader which means utterly dead shouldn’t exist, but tell that to the simile: deader than a doornail (which really makes no sense).
Examples of ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVES include absolute, perfect, complete, impossible, principal, adequate, inevitable, sufficient, complete, main, fun, supreme, whole, unavoidable, entire, minor, fatal, unique, final, universal, ideal, preferable, and dead.
Technically, the ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVE shouldn’t be intensified with more or most but tell that George Bernard Shaw who quipped: Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
So while Megadeth doesn’t want to Wake Up Dead and Guns N' Roses worry about Suzie sending Dead Flowers, Panic at the Disco wonders if you’ll dance to this beat in the impossible extreme of Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off.
SO HOW CAN YOU TELL WHAT’S AN ADJECTIVE?
(1) Find the noun(s) or noun phrase(s).
(2) Look for the words describing the noun(s) or noun phrase(s).
(3) If a word ends in –ly, it’s probably not an adjective (there are some exceptions like lovely). It’s the next-door neighbor. It’s important to remember that adverbs don’t always end in –ly and that some words (ex: fast) can take the same form whether they’re ADJECTIVES or adverbs.
(4) Look for the verb(s) in a sentence. Verbs show action or state of being. Replace verb in sentence with the correct form of to be. This will help you find any PREDICATE ADJECTIVES.
(5) Still not sure. Try placing ‘very’ in front of the word. Does it sound right? Then it’s probably an ADJECTIVE.
(6) Many ADJECTIVES end with these suffixes:
-able/-ible – Insatiable - Prince
-al – Logical Song - Supertramp
-an – American Woman - Lenny Kravitz
-ar –You Turn Clear In The Sun - Telekinesis
-ary2 - Starry Eyed – Ellie Goulding
-ate2 - Disparate Youth - Santigold
-ed – Complicated - Avril Lavigne
-ent – Magnificent – U2
-ful – Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
-ic/-ical – Manic Monday - The Bangles
-ine – Masculine Women, Feminine Men - Frederick Hodges
-ile – Fertile Crescent – Bad Religion
-ive – Addictive - Truth Hurts
-less – Endless Love – Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
-ous – Dangerous – Michael Jackson
-some – Are You Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley
-y2 – Pretty Wings - Maxwell
2Many adjectives end with these suffixes, but you need to be careful because many nouns, adverbs and verbs end with these suffixes as well.
So now as the chatty gossips return to their comfortable abode for a much-needed rest, pleased that you know a little something more about them. Alas, Mark Twain said it best:
“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get.”
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The simple present tense indicates action is happening or being carried out: Today… is the greatest day I've ever known.
So if we consider that just as Rihanna thinks it’s best to just Wait Your Turn, she’s willing to wait for Jay Z’s answer when she asks who’s going to Run This Town.
The past tense indicates an action that was carried out in…well, the past: Yesterday… all my troubles seemed so far away.
A Flock of Seagulls explained how I Ran (So Far Away) but couldn’t get away, while Terminus Waited For Years.
The future tense indicates action will be carried out some time later: Won't you come back…tomorrow?
I Will Run To You, Hillsong vows even as Mumford & Sons swears I Will Wait.
Linking verbs (also called copulas) are like the links on Mr. T’s gold necklace; they’re tough enough to carry a sentence when an action verb is MIA (and not at Miami International Airport). Not action-oriented in the least, these verbs link and in that, identify the relationship between the subject and what follows the verb.
Sade used a linking verb to identify the relationship between love and pride. Bruno Mars used a linking verb to identify a distant point of time and his position in someone’s life. Nirvana used a linking verb to identify an implied noun and teen spirit.
Some linking verbs are easily identifiable. They are the various forms of the verb to be, to become and to seem.
Other linking verbs are not so easy to identify. Sometimes an action verb becomes a linking verb based on its use in the sentence. Examples of these murky linking verbs include: grow, look, prove, remain, smell, sound, taste, turn, stay, get, appear, and feel.
So how can you tell? Ask yourself if the subject can in reality perform the verb action that the verb is suggesting.
Ex: In I can smell the food, the subject is ‘I’ and the action verb is…smell.
But in Smells Like Teen Spirit; the subject is the implied ‘it’ and the action verb…doesn’t exist. Smells, in this instance, is a linking verb
If you hadn’t noticed, the villa of VERB is a full house with blurred boundaries and often confusing trimmings that make you question your grip on sanity. What’s important, in the end, is to be able to identify a verb as a significant number of errors often occur because the verb was misidentified.
So how to identify a verb:
Ask yourself, what is happening? Then ask yourself, what is? One of these questions has to be answered. It’s a law.
Ex: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?
What is happening? The answer is mend, which you now know is an action verb. And can? Can is the Auxiliary, its purpose is to help convey the tense of mend.
This couple strikes the perfect balance merging mind and body without jostling one another for the superior position.
DYNAMIC is all about the action, process, or sensation. In some ways, DYNAMIC is the motivational speaker of the house outlining ways to accomplish an action that has a logical endpoint (Jump Around), to achieve an action that occurs instantaneously (Beat It), or to express an action that continues indefinitely (Run For Your Life).
STATIVE, on the other hand, is more cerebral. As a mind verb, STATIVE is focused on pinning down a state, situation or condition. STATIVE expresses itself with verbs such as be, have, know, like, own, prefer, understand, doubt, and seem (Know Your Enemy, or Rumour Has It).
LYRICS OF SPEECH: Couple #3 - Transitive vs. Intransitive - A Modern Family
This couple refuses to be bound by the rules governing traditionalism. Indeed, they have their predefined roles, but they also have no compunction about switching it up whenever the notion strikes them.
TRANSITIVE – the more rigid of the two – always does it with a noun or pronoun that follows and receives a direct action as in I Shot the Sheriff, Don't Phunk with My Heart, and Let the Drummer Kick.
INTRANSITIVE, on the other hand, can do it without a noun or pronoun as in Stay, Don’t Lie, Suffer Well, and Sleep.
Ex: lie, suffer, sleep, die, sit, age, cough, lose, eat, drink, break, do
Confusion crops up when these two start dipping their toes into each other’s pool as in (intransitive →transitive): Would I Lie To You, Lay Down Sally, or (transitive →intransitive): Breathe.
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LYRICS OF SPEECH: Couple #2: REGULAR & IRREGULAR –High Drama
This couple just can’t seem to find common ground on the issue of tense-ness and the methodology of shifting from present to past. As a couple, they shouldn’t work, but they do, remaining committed to each other even in the midst of conflict in a way that boggles the mind.
REGULAR can easily throw on an inflection (an –d, –ded, or –ed ending, in this case) and shift from present to past tense as in Strip → Stripped, but this isn’t the case for IRREGULAR because IRREGULAR, a/k/a drama queen, just can’t help being unpredictable and making a production of shifting from present to past tense as in Lose →Lost.
Don’t Look Back In Anger, at least, not today warns OasiswhileGroove Armadaimagines that If Everybody Looked The Same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.
Ex(R): strip, look, breathe, walk, talk
The Fray says We Build Then We Break but, long ago, Somebody Already Broke My Heart, Sade declares.
Couple #1: AUXILIARY & LEXICAL – A Lesson in Dominance
Much like butter on pancakes, soda with pizza, or beer with a burger, this is a fascinating pairing. Sure, each element can be taken separately, but they’re so much better together. LEXICAL is the main verb, able to stand on its own, the main source of action which the subject is engaged. On the other hand, AUXILIARY is a helping verb, conveying LEX’s tense and mood by using a variety of tools such as be, have, do, can, may, must, will.
LEXICAL doesn’t truly need AUXILIARY, but AUXILIARY can’t exist alone. In fact, AUXILIARY exists only to help LEXICAL.
So while I know that I Will Survive in the future, I also know that today…today, I Can’t Stand The Rain.
Wait! That doesn’t make sense. How about I Am What I Am or Where Are You Now? or Where Have You Been?
None of those have LEX. Only AUXILIARY…so what are you talking about?
The answer is simple. Indeed, there are times when, in a fight for independence, AUXILIARY breaks free from LEXICAL’s influence. In those instances, AUXILIARY undergoes a personality shift and becomes a LINKING VERB where its purpose is to indicate a state of being rather than an action (more on LINKING VERBS in a later post). In other words, when LEXICAL leaves the house, it takes AUXILIARY along, leaving LINKING in its place.
