- Types and examples
- Adjectives
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Determinative adjectives
- Demonstrative
- Possessive
- Relative
- Interrogatives and exclamatory
- Numerals
- Undefined
- Example 3
- Example 4
- Examples 5
- References
The adjectives are those words for qualities or properties that are inherent or circumstantial of the noun, and its basic function is to modify said noun. It must agree with this in gender and number, directly or through a verb.
The latter occurs when the adjective has an attributive or predicative function. In these cases the adjectives predicate or attribute something of the direct subject or object. This usually happens with the copulative verbs ser, estar, and appear.
In general, adjectives are classified into qualifiers and determinatives. The former express qualities, defects or characteristics that describe the noun. In turn, these are divided into explanatory and specific. Explanatory adjectives indicate qualities inherent in the noun they modify (sweet honey). A specific adjective distinguishes the noun from another entity (expensive honey).
For their part, determinative adjectives introduce and delimit the scope of the noun (this honey). Although adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun, there are some exceptions. Many adjectives ending in -a, -e, -i, -en, -ir, -ar, -l, -s and -z remain unchanged in the feminine.
For example, "hypocrite," "interesting," "cheerful," "open-minded" and "mean" are used for the masculine and feminine. Also, some adjectives (such as "free" or "isosceles") remain unchanged in the plural.
On the other hand, some adjectives apocopate (lose the last vowel or syllable) when they precede masculine nouns in the singular. This is the case with 'good', 'big' and 'bad'. For example: good men - good man, great feats - great feat, bad times - bad time. The adjective "big" also falls short in the feminine.
Another characteristic feature of adjectives is degree: most of the qualifying adjectives present the quality gradually. An adjective has three degrees: positive, comparative, and superlative (for example, "recent," "most recent," or "most recent"). The last two indicate comparison, and the superlative is the maximum gradation.
Types and examples
Adjectives
In the following poems the qualifying adjectives have been highlighted. In the texts you can see the substantivation of the objectives, this phenomenon occurs when this kind of word takes the nominal function.
You can also appreciate the preposition and postponement of adjectives. Generally, when they precede the noun they are explanatory adjectives. Instead, when they are placed after they fulfill a specific or attributive function.
Example 1
“I have committed the worst of sins
that a man can commit. I have not been
happy. May the glaciers of oblivion
drag me down and lose me, merciless.
My parents begot me for the
risky and beautiful game of life,
for the earth, the water, the air, the fire.
I let them down. I was not happy. Accomplished
was not his young will. My mind
applied itself to the symmetrical stubbornness
of art, which interweaves trifles.
They gave me courage. I was not brave.
It does not abandon me. Is always by my side
The shadow of having been unhappy ”.
(Poem The remorse of Jorge Luis Borges)
The adjectives in the text are:
- "Worse" and "unhappy": "worse" is an adjective substantiated in comparative degree. Its positive grade is "bad." For its part, "unhappy" is also substantiated by ellipsis: having been a (man) unhappy.
- "Happy" and "brave": adjectives based on attributive. Both follow the copulative verb "to be."
- «Ruthless»: adjective with an attributive function. In this case, a copulative verb does not follow ("let them drag me down mercilessly, let me lose merciless").
- «Young» and «symmetric»: qualifying adjectives preceded (at «will» and «stubbornness», respectively).
- "Risky" and "beautiful": postponed qualifying adjectives (to "game").
Example 2
“Afternoon that undermined our goodbye.
Afternoon steely and delightful and monstrous like a dark angel.
Afternoon when our lips lived in the naked intimacy of kisses.
The inevitable time overflowed
on the useless embrace.
We lavished passion together, not for ourselves but for the already immediate loneliness.
The light rejected us; the night had come with urgency.
We went to the gate in that gravity of the shadow that the star already relieves.
Like someone who returns from a lost meadow I returned from your embrace.
Like someone who returns from a country of swords, I returned from your tears.
Afternoon that lasts vivid as a dream
between the other afternoons.
Later I was reaching and passing
nights and journeys ”.
(Poem A farewell by Jorge Luis Borges)
In this case, the adjectives are:
- 'Steely', 'delightful', 'monstrous', 'dark', 'inevitable', 'useless' and 'immediate': postponed adjectives.
- "Naked" and "lost": adjectives in preposition.
- «Vívida»: adjective with an attributive function. It expresses an attribute of the noun "late" through the verb "to last."
Determinative adjectives
Determinative adjectives are characterized by their preceding position (before the noun). The semantic function of this type of adjective is to specify, quantify or indicate a series of characteristics of the noun that they are modifying.
Unlike qualifying adjectives, they do not form an open class. This means that it is a finite set. These adjectives are classified as:
Demonstrative
They determine through a relationship of place (this, this, these, these, that, that, those, those, that, that, those and those).
Possessive
They denote possession or belonging (my, you, his, our, our, our, yours, yours, yours, yours and their).
Relative
They are always used in complex sentences, serving as an introductory link for the subordinate clause (whose, whose, whose, whose, how much, how much, how many and how many).
Interrogatives and exclamatory
They specify the specific aspect of a question or exclamation (what, which, which, how much, how much, how many and how many).
Numerals
They specify the quantity. They are subdivided into cardinal (one, two…), ordinal (first, second…), partitive (middle, third…), multiplicative (simple, double…) and distributive (both, each…).
Undefined
They refer to an indefinite or indeterminate number of elements that belong to the class of object designated by the noun (some, no, little, too much, all, same, other…). It is the largest group of determinative adjectives.
In the following examples, determinative adjectives were highlighted and subsequently ranked.
Example 3
"You whose flesh, today dispersion and dust,
weighed like ours on the earth,
you whose eyes saw the sun, that famous star,
you who lived not in the rigid yesterday
but in the incessant present,
in the last point and vertiginous apex of time,
you who in your monastery were called
by the ancient voice of the epic,
you who wove the words,
you who sang the victory of Brunanburh
and attributed it not to the Lord
but to the sword of your king…
you who loved your England so much
and did not name it,
today you are nothing more than a few words
that the Germanists write down.
Today there are another thing that my voice
when revives your words iron.
I ask my gods or the sum of time
that my days deserve to be forgotten,
that my name is Nobody like Ulysses,
but that some verse last
in the night conducive to memory
or in the mornings of men.
(Fragments of the poem To a Saxon Poet by Jorge Luis Borges)
In the verse “it weighed like ours on the earth”, the adjective “ours” is pronominalized. In this case, substitute the phrase “our meat”.
In this poem the following adjectives are observed:
- «Whose» and «whose»: relative adjectives.
- «Esa»: demonstrative adjective.
- «Last»: cardinal numeral adjective (expresses position).
- «You», «your», «my» and «my»: possessive adjectives.
- «Other» and «some»: undefined adjectives.
Example 4
“Heraclitus walks in the afternoon
From Ephesus. The afternoon has left him,
Without his will deciding it,
On the bank of a silent river
Whose destiny and whose name he does not know.
There is a stone Janus and some poplars
He looks in the fugitive mirror
And discovers and works the sentence
That the generations of men
Will not let fall. His voice declares:
No low two times the water
from the same river. It stops. Feel
With the astonishment of a sacred horror
That he too is a river and a drain.
Want to get thattomorrow
And his night and the day before. Can not…"
(Fragment of the poem Heraclitus by Jorge Luis Borges)
In this excerpt from the poem Heraclitus the following adjectives are appreciated:
- «Su»: possessive adjective.
- «Cuyo»: relative adjective.
- «Two»: cardinal numeral adjective.
- «Same»: indefinite adjective.
- «Esa»: demonstrative adjective.
Examples 5
“Looking at the river made of time and water
and remembering that time is another river,
knowing that we lose ourselves like the river
and that faces pass like water. To
feel that waking is another dream
that dreams of not dreaming and that the death
he fears our flesh is the death
of every night is called sleep.
To see in the day or in the year a symbol
of the days of man and his years,
turn the outrage of the years
into a music, a rumor and a symbol…
Sometimes in the afternoons a face
looks at us from the bottom of a mirror;
art must be like that mirror
that reveals our own face to us.
They say that Odysseus, fed up with prodigies,
wept with love when he saw his
humble green Ithaca. Art is that Ithaca
of green eternity, not of prodigies.
It is also like the endless river
that passes and remains and is a crystal of the same
inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same
and is another, like the endless river ”.
(Fragments of the poem Look at the river made of time and water… by Jorge Luis Borges)
The indefinite adjectives "same" and "other" are functioning as pronouns. They replace the phrases "Heraclitus himself" and "another Heraclitus," respectively.
As for the determinative adjectives of this poem, there are:
- "Other" and "same": undefined adjectives.
- "Our", "their" and "their": possessive adjectives.
- "That" and "that": demonstrative adjectives.
- "Every". distributive numeral adjective.
References
- Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts. Royal Spanish Academy. (2005). Linguistic terms. Retrieved on February 16, 2018, from rae.es.
- García García, S., Meilán García, AJ and Martínez, H. (2004). Build well in Spanish: the form of words. Oviedo: Ediuno.
- Martínez, H. (2005). Build well in Spanish: syntactic correction. Oviedo: Ediuno..
- Luna Traill, E.; Vigueras Avila, A and Baez Pinal, GE (2005). Basic dictionary of linguistics. Mexico DF: UNAM.
- Marín, E. (1999). Spanish grammar. Mexico DF: Editorial Progreso.
- García-Macho, ML; García-Page Sánchez, M.; Gómez Manzano, P and Cuesta Martínez, P. (2017). Basic knowledge of the Spanish Language. Madrid: Editorial Universitaria Ramon Areces.
- Rodríguez Guzmán, JP (2005). Graphic grammar to the juampedrino mode. Barcelona: Carena Editions.
- Maneiro Vidal, M. (2008). Practical grammar of current Spanish. North Carolina: Lulu.com.