All rules are based on adjectives. Adjective

The Russian language is very rich. A significant role in this is played by such a part of speech as an adjective, which indicates a characteristic feature of an object. In this article, you will learn what an adjective means, what questions it answers, and how it is defined in a sentence.

What is an adjective as a part of speech?

Adjective in Russian– this is an independent part of speech, indicating a sign (quality, property) of an object expressed by a noun or pronoun. The initial form of an adjective is the masculine singular form in the nominative case (light, cold, green, kind).

In sentences, adjectives, as a rule, act as a determiner, but can also be used as a predicate (or as part of a nominal predicate).

The adjective as a part of speech is studied in grades 4-6.

What questions does the adjective answer?

Adjective answers questions Which (Which? Which?), Whose? (Whose? Whose?) And What?, as well as their derivative forms, depending on the form in which case, gender and number the word is used (for example: fell out snow (what?) white, find a hole (whose?) fox).

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What do adjectives mean?

In the Russian language, the main role of adjectives in speech is to define objects (persons, phenomena, states). According to their meaning, adjectives are usually divided into three categories:

• Quality– indicate specific qualities of objects (weight, size, age, color, appearance, internal characteristics), have degrees of comparison.

  Examples of specific adjectives: heavy, red, hardworking, sweet, younger, beautiful.

• Relative– denote signs that express the relationship of one object to another (material, location, purpose, time).

  Examples of relative adjectives: English, Volga region, last year, weekly, playing.

• Possessives- indicate the attribute of an object according to its belonging to a certain person or animal (answer questions Whose? Whose? Whose?).

  Examples of possessive adjectives: mother's, fisherman's, father's, hare's, sable.

What are the adjectives?

In Russian, adjectives are represented by two rows of forms:

• Full– adjectives that change by gender, number and case act as a definition in a sentence (strong, nutty, long).
• Brief– adjectives that vary in number and gender are used as a predicate in a sentence (old, reliable, carefree).

Morphological features of adjectives

Adjectives have constant (unchangeable) and unstable (changeable) morphological features.

The constant grammatical categories of adjectives include:

• Class by meaning (qualitative, possessive, relative);
• Degree of comparison (positive, comparative and superlative);
• Full or short form.

The morphologically inconsistent features of adjectives are:

• Number;
• Case.

How to define an adjective?

To determine an adjective in oral or written speech, put questions to the word of this part of speech ( Which? Whose?, What? and their derivatives), and also find out whether the word has the basic grammatical and syntactic features of adjectives (category in meaning, degree of comparison, inflection in gender, number and cases, etc.).

The meaning of the adjective, its morphological features and syntactic function

Adjective - is an independent part of speech that denotes an attribute of an object and answers questions Which? whose?

The value of the characteristic expressed adjectives, can combine a variety of characteristics of an object, namely: 1) the shape and position of the object in space (straight, curved, steep); size 2 (big, tall, wide, narrow); 3) physical characteristics (warm, oily, bitter); 4) character traits, physiological and intellectual properties (kind, brave, young, smart); 5) spatial and temporal characteristics (rural, Siberian, morning, early); 6) the material from which the item is made (wool, linen, wood, metal); 7) actions and states of the subject (reading, sleeping, spinning, weaving); 8) belonging of the item (Colin, mother's, fox, hare).

Initial form adjective- nominative singular masculine.

Adjectives vary by gender, number and case (new table, new hat, new things, about new things and gender, number and case adjective depend on the gender, number and case of the noun to which the given adjective applies.

By meaning and grammatical features adjectives are divided into three categories: 1) quality adjectives (big, bad, blue), 2) relative adjectives (spring, rural, wooden), 3) possessive adjectives (mother's, father's, hare's).

In a sentence adjectives act as a definition or nominal part of a compound nominal predicate. For example:

The high sky glows through the window,

The evening sky is calm and clear.

My lonely heart cries with happiness,

Rado it's what the sky is beautiful.

(3. Gippius)

Qualitative adjectives

Quality adjectives denote a feature of an object that can manifest itself to a greater or lesser extent.

Most often they denote shape, size, color, property, taste, weight, smell, temperature, sound, internal qualities of living beings.

Qualitative adjectives have a number of characteristics, which include: 1) the presence of a full and short form (A young man- young man, young woman- young woman, young generation- young generation, young people- people are young); 2) the presence of two forms of degrees of comparison - comparative and superlative (smart- cleverer- smartest - the smartest, smartest of all); 3) the ability to form adverbs in -o, -e (good- ok, best- better); 4) the ability to form nouns with an abstract meaning in a suffixed and non-suffixed way (blue- blue- blue, red- red, green- greenery); 5) the ability to form synonymous series and antonymous pairs (cold- fresh- icy, sad- sad- sad; good- bad, cheerful - sad); 6) ability to combine with adverbs of degree (very young, extremely important); 7) the ability to form forms of subjective assessment (young- young, smart- smart).

Relative adjectives

Relative adjectives denote a feature of an object that is not manifested to a greater or lesser extent.

A sign that is expressed relative adjectives, can manifest itself through various relationships: 1) to the material (glass product - glass product, chintz dress- cotton dress); 2) to action (a machine that drills- drilling machine; machine that washes- washing machine); 3) by time (sport in winter- winter sports, task for the day - daily task); 4) to the place (station square - station square, city resident- city ​​dweller); 5) to your face (dormitory for students - student dormitory, playground for children- playground); 6) to the number (the price is three times higher,- triple price, mistake made twice,- double fault).

The basis relative adjectives always derivative. These adjectives do not have short forms or comparative forms.

Possessive adjectives

Possessives adjectives indicate whether an object belongs to a person or an animal and answer the question whose?

Possessive adjectives are formed in a suffix way. According to the method of formation, the following are distinguished: 1) adjectives with suffixes -in- (yn, -nin), -oe- (-ev): grandmother’s scarf, sister’s cloak, brother’s pencil, father’s hat, son-in-law’s coat; 2) adjectives with suffix - j- (graphic -y): bear's den, behind-the-cell[w] tail, fox[w] trail. They all have a zero ending in their initial form.

Adjectives with suffixes -in- (-yn-), -oe- (ev-) used in colloquial speech to a limited extent, found in stable phrases (crocodile tears, pansies, Achilles heel, sword of Damocles, Antonov fire). Instead, combinations are more often used noun+ +noun- type father's office (=fathers' office), mother's dress (=mother's dress), the rustle of a butterfly, the teacher's book, Dahl's dictionary. In addition, on the basis of these adjectives, a large number of proper nouns are formed - surnames of people and names of settlements (composer Borodin, writer Chekhov, Borodino village, Chekhov city).

Transition of adjectives from one category to another

Some adjectives can be used in a figurative meaning and acquire characteristics that are not characteristic of words of their category. As a result, there may be cases transition of adjectives from one category to another. Thus, possessive adjectives (mostly with the suffix - j) can go into the category of relative and qualitative, relative - into the category of qualitative, qualitative (rarely) - into the category of relative.

At transition from one category to another Not only the meanings change, but also the grammatical features of adjectives. So, for example, qualitative adjectives, when used in relative and possessive meanings, lose the ability to form simple forms and adverbs in -o, -e, and relative adjectives, becoming qualitative, on the contrary, acquire this ability. Wed: tripping(quality) - the gait is easy, breathing is easy, But: light industry(rel.); wooden cabinet(rel.), but: wooden gait(quality) - the gait is wooden, the look is dull, wooden.

Full and short forms of adjectives

Qualitative adjectives have full And brief form. Full form of adjective denotes a sign that is conceivable outside of time (steep bank, cheerful girl, round face).Short form of adjective denotes a sign of an object at a given specific moment in time (steep bank- the coast is cool, cheerful girl- cheerful girl, round face- round face).

Adjectives in short form do not change by case, but change by gender and number, that is, they take the corresponding endings of masculine, feminine, neuter and plural, which are attached to the stems of full adjectives.

During education short forms masculine the following features can be observed: 1) the appearance of fluent vowels o or e (strong- strong, smooth- smooth, harmful - harmful, sick - sick); 2) repression short forms masculine on -enen short forms on -en (insensitive- insensitive, senseless- meaningless, numerous- numerous).

In a sentence short form usually serves as the nominal part of a compound predicate, for example: Rest in vain. Road cool. Evening beautiful. I'm knocking on the gate (A. Blok). It can also act as a separate definition related to the subject. For example: Dika, sad, silent, timid as a forest deer, she seemed like a stranger in her own family (A. Pushkin).

Traces of oblique cases short forms preserved in some stable phrases, as well as in folklore: on bare feet, in broad daylight, in broad daylight, from young to old; good fellow, fair maiden, green wine.

Some adjectives (glad, much, must, love, necessary etc.) are used in modern Russian only in short form. In sentences, like most short forms, are part of the predicate. For example:

Glad to forget, may I not forget; Glad to fall asleep, but I won’t fall asleep. (D. Merezhkovsky)

Degrees of comparison of qualitative adjectives

Majority qualitative adjectives It has degrees of comparison: comparative and superlative. Comparative and superlative forms can be simple (synthetic) or compound (analytic).

comparative

comparative indicates that this characteristic is contained in one object to a greater extent than in another.

Simple form with to an equal degree formed from the base of the initial form using suffixes -ee (her), -e, -she, -same.

Productive suffix her(her) forms a shape comparative degree from stems to a consonant (except for non-derived stems to g, x, d, t, cm): light- lighter, weaker- weaker, charming - more charming, envious- more envious.

Non-productive suffix -e observed in forms comparative degree, formed: 1) from non-derivative bases on g, x, d, t, an(expensive - more expensive, dry ~ drier, young- younger, rich - richer, simple ~ simpler); 2) from adjectives with a suffix -To-, having the short masculine form of -ok: short-k-y (short) - in short, low-ky (low) - lower, loud-k-y (loud)- louder); 3) from some other adjectives (high - higher, wide- wider, cheap - cheaper). Forming comparative forms using a suffix -e usually accompanied by alternation of the final consonants of the stem: Expensive- expensive, loud- louder, dry- drier, cheap - cheaper.

Unproductive suffixes -she, -zhe form shapes comparative degree in isolated cases: far- next, thin- thinner, deeper- deeper

Some adjectives form degrees of comparison from different stems: good- worse, bad - better, small- less.

In colloquial speech forms comparative degree can be used with the prefix By-, mitigating the degree of manifestation of the symptom: cheaper - cheaper, more expensive- more expensive, lighter- lighter.

comparative degree is formed by combining the initial form of an adjective with the words more, less: fresh- more fresh - less fresh, difficult- more difficult- less difficult, perfect - more perfect- less perfect.

comparative degree do not change by gender, number, or case. In a sentence they usually serve as the nominal part of a compound predicate, for example: More bearable many was Evgeny... (A. Pushkin). They can also act as an inconsistent definition, in this case they appear after the word being defined, for example: A short* beard, slightly darker than the hair, slightly shaded the lips and chin (I. Turgenev). Compound (analytic) forms function in a sentence in the same way as regular full forms of qualitative adjectives.

Superlative

Superlative shows that one of many similar objects possesses this characteristic to the highest degree.

The simple superlative form is formed from the base of the initial form using suffixes -eysh, -aysh, -sh: kind- kindest, smartest- smartest, tallest- highest, strict- the strictest. In book speech, a prefix can be added to words nai-, increasing the degree of manifestation of a symptom: good- best, bad- worst, small- least.

Composite (analytic) form superlatives is formed in three ways: 1) by connecting the initial form with words the most beautiful- the most beautiful, tall- highest); 2) by connecting the initial form with words most, least (successful- the most successful, interesting- least interesting); 3) by combining the simple form of the comparative degree of the adjective with pronouns everything, everyone in the genitive case (funny- the most fun of all, wide- wider than all, warm- warmest).

Complex shapes superlatives have not only grammatical, but also stylistic differences:

Simple (synthetic) forms superlatives vary by gender (famous singer, famous singer), numbers (famous singers), cases (I'm talking about the famous singer). In a form sentence superlatives perform the function of the nominal part of a compound predicate or agreed definition, for example: Noise was huge(E. Krenkel). Her huge eyes looked sad.

Declension of adjectives

The case forms of adjectives are dependent in nature, since they express the meaning of gender, number and case of the noun with which the adjective is agreed. Therefore, the case forms of adjectives seem to repeat the functions of the corresponding forms of nouns. For example: new hat, new hat, new hat, new hat, new hat, (o) new hat.

Declension of qualitative and relative adjectives

There are three different type of declension of qualitative and relative adjectives: 1) hard declination, 2) soft declination, 3) mixed declination.

The spelling of the endings of adjectives in some cases sharply diverges from their sound composition, for example: white- white[ъвъ], summer- letn [въ].

Hard is the declension of adjectives with a stem on a hard consonant (except for stems on ts type scanty, and also on w with stressed ending type big).

Soft is the declension of adjectives with a base on a soft consonant (except g", k", x").

Mixed is the declension of adjectives with a stem on g, k, x (g", k", x"), and w with a stressed ending. These adjectives have both hard and soft endings.

Declension of possessive adjectives with suffixes -in- And -oe- form a special type.

The adjectives in question have noun endings in the nominative, genitive and accusative cases of the masculine and neuter gender, as well as in the nominative and accusative cases of the feminine gender and in the same plural cases. In other case forms they have the usual endings of qualitative and relative adjectives.

In the genitive and dative cases, masculine and neuter genders, instead of the endings of nouns, the endings of full adjectives can be used:

R. Sister's table, windows Sister's table, windows

D. To my sister’s table, window To my sister’s table, window

When declension of adjectives with the suffix -у- the latter does not receive a uniform letter designation in writing.

Adjectives of this variety in the forms of the nominative and accusative (when combined with inanimate nouns) cases have the endings of nouns, and in the remaining cases - the usual endings of qualitative and relative adjectives of the soft variety.

Morphological analysis of the adjective includes the identification of two constant features (category by meaning, degree of comparison for qualitative adjectives) and three non-constant ones (gender, number, case).

Adjective- this is a part of speech that expresses a constant (static) attribute of an object, grammatically manifested in the categories of gender, number and case.

The concept of quality in an adjective can be expressed directly (green oats, deep river, fresh milk) or through relation to other objects (sea wind, indoor plant, buckwheat flour) and through relation to a person or being (Trofima's son, mother's scarf, wolf's eye). By entering into a syntactic relationship with a noun, the adjective answers the question about the subject: which one? which? which? whose? whose? Whether there is a? Unlike nouns, the gender, number and case forms of adjectives are not independent; they agree with the gender, number and case forms of nouns. Some adjectives may have a semantically motivated category of degree of manifestation of a characteristic, which finds grammatical expression in the forms of degrees of comparison (blue - blue - blue, thin - thinner - the thinnest).

Adjectives act as an agreed definition in a sentence, for example: The pearly sky turned the earth into gray tones(M. Kotsyubinsky).

By joining a subject with the help of a connection, an adjective can act as a nominal part of a compound predicate, for example: The mountains were transparent and light in these last days of a clear mountain summer(O. Gonchar).

Classes of adjectives by meaning

According to their ability to express the characteristics of an object directly or through its relation to another object or person, adjectives are divided into categories: qualitative, relative and possessive. There are also some intermediate groups: relative-qualitative, possessive-relative, possessive-qualitative.

qualitative adjectives

Qualitative adjectives express the characteristics of objects directly by their lexical meaning: yellow color, cheerful song, bitter pepper, brave warrior, long journey, dull stomping, pleasant appearance.

Qualitative adjectives at the present stage are perceived as non-derivative words, although in the past they were associated with the names of objects and, therefore, expressed a relative attribute through the object. So, for example, the root of the word white(b * v-l-b) in ancient times meant “light, transparency”, and the adjective lush comes from the verb pykh with the meaning “breathing, puffing.”

Directly detected signs of an object are perceived by the human senses. In modern Ukrainian literary language, qualitative adjectives form several thematic groups, expressing:

1) signs of color, size, weight and external features of an object are perceived by the organ of vision: black, clear, large, wide, heavy, oblique, round;

2) signs of objects by taste and properties that are perceived by the organ of taste: sour, bitter, tasty and etc.;

3) signs of objects by physical properties that are perceived by the organs of touch, hearing, and smell: cold, warm, hard, sonorous, fragrant;

4) physical qualities of humans and other creatures: healthy, thin, fast, blind, bald, slender;

5) mental properties, character traits and other characteristics of a person: angry, soft, sad, kind, smart, determined, persistent, quiet.

Qualitative adjectives have lexical and grammatical features that distinguish them from other categories.

1. The most grammatical feature of qualitative adjectives is their ability to create forms of degrees of comparison. Qualitative adjectives convey characteristics that are of varying degrees in different objects. The manifestation of the intensity of a feature is expressed in qualitative adjectives by grammatical forms of higher and higher degrees of comparison and lexical and word-formation means: the creation of derivative adjectives with suffixes of emotional evaluation (white - white, bilis, whitish; sour - sour, sour, sour).

Intensity characteristics can also be expressed syntactically by adding quantitative adverbs to a qualitative adjective, for example: a little lazy, little active, very happy, very successful, too proud.

2. A characteristic property of qualitative adjectives is also their ability to enter into antonymic relationships (cheerful - sad, hot - cold, sharp - dull, rich - poor).

3. From qualitative adjectives you can create nouns with an abstract meaning (brave - courage, evil - anger, kind - kindness, blue - blue, wide - wide), as well as qualitative qualifying adverbs with the suffix -O or -and (sweet is sweet, quick-witted - deftly, hot - hotter, patient - patiently).

A small group of qualitative adjectives may have a short form, e.g. green - green, clear - clear, worth - worth, small - driben, glad - advice, full - complete, definite - sure.

However, some adjectives may not have all these features. Yes, not all qualitative adjectives can create degrees of comparison (e.g. dead, dumb) Some qualitative adjectives do not form nouns with an abstract meaning (toothy, brown, brown etc.), Only some qualitative adjectives have a short form.

Relative and possessive adjectives do not have any of these properties, since they express the characteristics of objects indirectly through other objects.

relative adjectives

Relative adjectives denote the attribute of an object not directly, but through its relationship to another object, phenomenon, or action.

Expressing characteristics through an object, phenomenon or action or circumstance is a typical indicator of syntactic relationships: paper flowers, porridge with milk, answer to an exam, sleep at night. An adjective, the formative basis of which is a noun denoting an object or a generalized action, expresses a characteristic and logically correlates with the semantics of a syntactic phrase; paper flowers, milk porridge, exam answer, night's sleep.

Relative adjectives have derived stems and arise mainly from nouns with the help of suffixes assigned to this category of words or in a prefix-suffixal way or in stem forms.

The morphological features of relative adjectives do not coincide with the features of qualitative adjectives. Relative adjectives change in gender, number and case, but do not create degrees of comparison. Derivative words with suffixes of subjective evaluation do NOT arise from relative adjectives, nor do nouns of abstract meaning and adverbs of -o, -e.

According to their meaning, relative adjectives are divided into thematic groups, among which the largest quantitatively are:

1) names of characteristics of objects according to the material: stone statue, pottery, wooden bed, thatched roof, calico shirt, hemp linen, cast iron core;

2) names of features based on the relationships of various dimensions of objects: an hour's rest, a kilometer distance, a liter bottle, a ten percent solution, repeated tasks, repeated reminders, two-kilogram weight;

3) names of features of objects by purpose, functions and other features: reading room, trigger mechanism, carbon paper, steel rolling shop, reporting report;

4) names of characteristics of objects according to their affiliation with an institution, organization, etc.: schoolyard "I", collective garden, factory square, institute hall;

5) names of characteristics of objects according to spatial relationships to other objects: suburban area, field brigade, trans-river estuary, near-Earth space, border post, northern region.

Relatively qualitative adjectives

Relative adjectives can become qualitative; Polysemantic words with their direct meaning can remain in the category of relative ones, and on the basis of figurative meanings, qualitative adjectives are gradually created, which at the present stage are still perceived as derivatives.

So, for example, the names of the characteristics of objects according to different relations such as cherry (juice), beet (root), lilac (bush), raspberry (drink) can also be used as names of colors that are directly perceived: cherry scarf, beet cap, lilac shade, raspberry coat.

These color names are already perceived as qualitative adjectives. Relative adjectives, expressing the characteristics of objects by material and other relationships, can also acquire in the context of the characteristics of qualitative adjectives. Compare for example: silver spoon And silver head(gray-haired) wooden table And treesy language(motionless, stiff) parent meetings And parental attitude(sensitive) crystal vase And crystal conscience(especially clean ones).

Some relatively qualitative adjectives, in which the process of semantic transformation has been completed, have the characteristics of qualitative adjectives. So, for example, adjectives creative, picturesque, business, peaceful can form forms of higher and higher degrees of comparison or are syntactically indicated by quantitative words: more creative, most creative, less businesslike, least businesslike, too picturesque, very peaceful.

Such adjectives can become the formative stems of nouns with abstract meaning (creativity, picturesqueness) or adverbs (creative, picturesque, peaceful) and enter into antonymic and synonymous relationships.

possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives express the belonging of an object to a specific person or (less often) animal: father's house, Andreev's brother, Oksana's notebook, directors' order, fox's head.

The meaning of possessive adjectives is the same; they all express the individual attribution of an object to a person or animal. Only in the case of personification of inanimate objects are adjectives with a possessive meaning derived from inanimate names used, for example And for months the father (his name is the sun) lit a pipe(P. Tychina).

Possessive adjectives have their own word-formation types and unique grammatical features. The formative stems of possessive adjectives are only the noun and only the names of creatures (with rare exceptions in the case of personification of inanimate objects). Possessive adjectives arise: a) from names of people using suffixes -ov (-ev), -in (-in): Petrov, Vasiliev, comrades, Sergiev, sisterly, Colin, Maria; b) from animal names using suffixes -ach (y), -yach (y), in (y), -in (yy): dog, chicken, eagle, nightingales Iny.

Rare adjectives derived from animal names contain suffixes -ov than: Soloviev, Kukushkin. Some possessive adjectives have a null suffix, for example: wolf, sheep.

Possessive adjectives, formed from the names of people, in nominative and accusative cases have a short form (Kuznetsov, Ivanov, mother, Maria, daughter), and adjectives derived from animal names have the full form (goose, duck, dog).

If an adjective expresses the belonging of an object to more than one animal, but denotes a general generic attribution or property of a particular animal, then it is included in the category of possessive-relative or possessive-qualitative adjectives.

Compare for example: bear head, eagle beak(possessive adjectives) bear fur coat, dog pack, eagle feather(relative) disservice, dog cold, eagle vision(qualitative adjectives).

Those adjectives that are part of phraseological phrases and terminological names do not express the meaning of possessiveness, for example: Achilles's Fifth, Gordian knot, sword of Damocles, Adam's apple, Torricelli's void, Peter's whip(bot.), Beef tongue(dial., name of colors). Adjectives also do not have a possessive meaning; they have become geographical names or surnames, for example Kyiv, Kharkov, Shevchenkovo, Pavlov Yakov, Kovalishin.

Possessive adjectives are used in a conventional style, in the language of fiction and folklore. In other styles of the Ukrainian language, possessive adjectives are rarely used. The meaning of individual reference to a person in scientific, journalistic and other styles of speech is most often conveyed by the genitive case forms of the noun: Franco's works, Lysenko's music, the writer's worldview, the teacher's word, Ignatenko's statement, the director's order.

Possessive adjectives, formed from the names of animals, are relatively rarely used even in colloquial and artistic styles of speech.

Possessive-relative and possessive-qualitative adjectives

In the Ukrainian language, intermediate groups of adjectives are distinguished, combining possessive and relative meanings or acting in the meaning of a directly discovered external characteristic of an object.

Possessive-relative adjectives arise from the names of people, occasionally from the names of animals using a suffix -sk. When joining the suffix forming the adjective stem, the suffix -sk acts as part of a complex suffix -ivsk- or -insk-, For example, admiral - admiral's; Cossack - Cossack, father - parental, student - student, mother - maternal, Malyshko - Malyshkovsky.

Possessive relative adjectives arise from the names of animals with the same suffixes as possessives: -ach- (-yach-), -in- (-in-), occasionally -ov- or zero suffix (veal, horse, cranberry, duck, snake, beef, sheep, eagle).

Unlike possessive adjectives, which express belonging to an individual person (creature), possessive relative adjectives indicate a more general reference, for example Shevchenko places(the area where T. G. Shevchenko was born, lived and studied) girls' group, girls' round dance; eagle seven "I, cranberry key, brutal offspring.

Possessive adjectives include the questions whose? whose? Whether there is a? whose?, Possessive relative adjectives mainly answer the questions which? which? which? which?: girl's lips(whose?), maiden round dance(Which?) grandfather's house(whose?), grandfather's house (whose?, which?), grandfather's legacy(which?) swallow wing(whose?), flipper's nest(which?), swallow noise(which?).

Losing the semantic connotation of possessiveness, possessive relative adjectives enter completely into the category of relative adjectives, for example teacher conference, parent committee, fish oil, cow's milk, rabbit fluff, sable collar.

All possessive relative adjectives appear only in their full form.

Possessive-relative adjectives can gradually acquire the meaning of qualitative adjectives. Rethinking this is possible on the basis of figurative meanings of the word. Such adjectives are allocated to a separate group Possessive-qualitative, for example maternal affection, a friendly handshake, grandfather's laws, a brutal look, a wolfish appetite, a hare's soul, ox strength, donkey (donkey) stubbornness and much more.

Adjectives in stable phraseological combinations have the same meaning: calf's business, swan song, Trishkin's caftan, night blindness, Aesop's language, mother's daughter, Promethean fire.

Possessive-relative adjectives, moving into the category of qualitative, acquire some grammatical features inherent in qualitative adjectives. Some of them acquire the ability to be combined with quantitative adverbs, for example: almost bestial look, extremely friendly conversation, too donkey (donkey) stubbornness. From these adjectives, attributive adverbs arise in the suffix-prefix way: in a fatherly way (in a fatherly way), in a maternal way (in a motherly way), in an old-fashioned way, in a beastly way, in a dog way, in a duck way, in a bull way, in a bear way, in a calf way.

Intermediate groups of adjectives are a consequence of the incomplete formation of new semantic shades based on the figurative meanings of the word. The distribution of adjectives and their assignment to certain semantic and grammatical categories can be carried out at the level of basic meanings. And in contextual conditions there are various cases of transition of adjectives from one semantic-grammatical category to another.

Surely all schoolchildren know what an adjective is. But many adults will most likely find it difficult to answer such a question. Over time, even basic things are forgotten. In which school classes are adjectives studied in detail? 4th grade, 5th, 6th... How long ago it was! We invite you to go back to the distant years and refresh your memory.

Independent part of speech

In Russian, it answers the questions “what”, “which”, “which”, “what”, “whose”, “whose”, “whose”, “whose” and denotes the attribute of an object. It changes according to numbers, genders, cases, and can have a short form. Most often in sentences it acts as a definition, but it can also act as a predicate.

Rank

The adjective like has only one constant morphological feature - it is a category. There are qualitative, possessive, relative linguistic units. Let's talk about each category in more detail.

Qualitative adjectives

Words of this category answer the questions “what”, “which”, “which”, “what” and denote a characteristic that can be present to a lesser or greater extent. Qualitative adjectives, as a rule, go well with the adverbs “too”, “very” and their synonyms, for example, too beautiful, very big, extremely smart.

From such words, by repetition, you can form a complex adjective, for example, big-big, tasty-delicious. You can also attach the prefix non- to the word and get a single-root adjective as a result, for example, ugly, not stupid. Typically, high-quality structural linguistic units have antonyms (high - low), and in some cases also hypernyms (big - huge). It should be noted that not all words meet the listed characteristics; there are also those that do not meet these criteria.

Word forms

The peculiarity of qualitative adjectives is that many of them have full and short forms, for example, smart - smart, tasty - tasty. At the same time, the short form is not declined at all, but the full form is declined according to cases, genders, and numbers. Often in sentences, short adjectives serve as predicates, and long adjectives serve as modifiers. Some words do not have a short form at all, for example, kind, friendly, while others do not have a full form, for example, much, necessary, must, glad.

Degrees of comparison

The story about what an adjective is would not be complete without touching upon such a characteristic of this part of speech as the degree of comparison. The sign is inherent only in high-quality linguistic units. There are three degrees of comparison:

1) positive, indicating that an object or group of objects has some characteristic, for example, a beautiful flower;

2) comparative, meaning that one or another characteristic of one object or group of objects is expressed more significantly than another (others), for example, a wolf is larger than a hare, or the same object (the same objects), but already in other times, for example, in the future I will be smarter;

3) excellent, meaning that an object or set of objects has some attribute to a greater extent than all other objects from the same group, for example, the best doctor in the hospital, the strongest player on the team.

You can form an adjective in the comparative degree by using additional words, for example: the most beautiful, taller. In this case, the part of speech takes on a composite, or, as they also say, analytical form. When expressed in only one word, the form is called simple, or synthetic. It should be emphasized that not all adjectives can have comparative and superlative degrees. Words that are not qualitative in nature do not have such characteristics.

Relative adjectives

These are linguistic units that answer the questions “whose”, “whose”, “whose”, “whose” and denote a characteristic that cannot be possessed to a lesser or greater extent. They express the relationship of an object to another object, to a property (washing powder), to a material (glass vase), to a place (Moscow courtyard), to time (October day), to a unit of measurement (a three-story house, a seven-year-old child, a kilogram bag), and so on. Further. Such adjectives cannot be combined with the adverbs “too”, “very” and their synonyms, and do not have a short form or degrees of comparison. They also have no antonyms.

Possessive adjectives

These words answer the questions “whose”, “whose”, “whose”, “whose”, and indicate that a certain object belongs to a person or living creature, for example, sister, father, fox. These linguistic units, as in the previous case, do not have degrees of comparison, antonyms, short forms, and are not combined with the adverbs “too”, “very” and their synonyms.

Digit boundaries

Talking about what an adjective is, it is worth noting one feature. The fact is that the lexical and grammatical boundaries of words in this part of speech are very flexible, so it is sometimes difficult to correctly determine the category. Thus, possessive, relative adjectives can easily take on a qualitative meaning. For example, in the phrase “dog's paw” the word “dog” will be a possessive adjective, in the phrase “pack of dogs” it will be a relative adjective, and in the phrase “a dog’s life” it will be a qualitative adjective.

Declension types

Words related to the part of speech we are considering can be inflected by cases, numbers, and in the singular also by gender. This does not apply to comparative adjectives and short adjectives that are not inflected. There are also a certain number of undecidable words, for example, beige jackets.

The case, number, and gender of adjectives depend on the same characteristics of the nouns with which they agree. Depending on the stem, there are three declension options:

• solid: ;
• soft: winter, winter, winter;
• mixed: bad, bad, bad.

Word formation

An adjective as a part of speech can be formed in different ways:

• prefix: joyful - joyless;
• suffixal: swamp - marshy;
• prefix-suffixal: earth - underground;
• by combining two bases: three colors - tricolor, pale and pink - pale pink;
• complex suffix: flax + seed + cleaning - flax seed cleaning.

Morphological analysis

At school, during Russian language lessons, teachers quite often give children tasks to make related to one or another part of speech. How to parse an adjective? To do this, you need to determine the following characteristics of the language unit:

Transition to other parts of speech

Participles and pronouns often become adjectives. For example, he is not much of a musician. In turn, adjectives can be substantivized into the category of nouns, for example, military, Russian.

Features of this part of speech in other languages

We hope that thanks to the article you were able to remember what an adjective is. It is worth saying that not all the characteristics inherent in this part of speech in the Russian language will occur in other linguistic systems. For example, adjectives in English do not change according to numbers and cases; in French, they do not change according to cases, but they change according to numbers. In Japanese, adjectives are generally unchangeable; they have tenses and determine politeness of speech. In Portuguese and Spanish, many adjectives have a common form for both masculine and feminine genders, while others vary according to gender and number. Everything is so difficult with this part of speech!

Now you can tell everything about the adjective. Of course, we did not consider all the characteristics of this part of speech, but touched only on the main features. But for general development this is quite enough.

In a sentence, an adjective is most often a modifier, but can also be a predicate. Has the same case as the noun it refers to.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Russian language. Morphology: Adjective as a part of speech. Foxford Online Learning Center

✪ Russian language 66. Adjective as a part of speech - Shishkina school

✪ Russian 10th grade. Adjective as part of speech

✪ Adjective (grade 5, video lesson presentation)

✪ Russian language. 6th grade. Adjective

Subtitles

Classes of adjectives

Discharge is the only constant morphological feature of this part of speech. There are three category adjectives: qualitative, relative and possessive.

Qualitative adjectives

They denote a characteristic that can be present to a greater or lesser extent. They answer the question “which one?”

As a rule, they have the following symptoms:

• combined with the adverbs “very” (and its synonyms) and “too” ( very big, too handsome, extremely smart).
• from qualitative adjectives it is possible to form
  • compound adjective by repetition ( delicious-delicious, big-big).
  • cognate adjective with prefix Not- (not stupid, ugly).
• have an antonym ( stupid - smart), and sometimes a hypernym ( big - huge)

Some qualitative adjectives do not satisfy all of the above criteria.

Most qualitative adjectives, and only they, have two forms: full ( smart, delicious) and short ( smart, delicious). The full form changes according to numbers, genders and cases. Short form - only by gender and number. In a sentence, the short form is used as a predicate, and the full form is usually used as a definition. Some qualitative adjectives do not have a short form ( friendly, amiable) . Others, on the contrary, do not have a full form ( glad, much, must, need)

Possessive adjectives

Indicate that an object belongs to a living creature or person ( paternal, sisters, fox). They answer the question “whose?” Possessive adjectives can become relative or qualitative: hare (possessive) fur, hare (qualitative) soul, hare (relative) trace.

General information

The boundaries of the lexico-grammatical categories of adjectives are flexible. Thus, possessive and relative adjectives can acquire a qualitative meaning: dog tail(possessive), dog pack(relative), dog life(quality).

Declension of adjectives

Adjectives are inflected by case and inflected by number; in the singular, they are also inflected by gender. The exception is short adjectives and comparative adjectives: they are not declined. In addition, there are a number of indeclinable adjectives: Komi people, khaki, gross weight.

The gender, case and number of the inflected adjective depend on the corresponding characteristics of the noun with which it agrees. Indeclinable adjectives are usually found after the noun; their gender, number, and case are determined syntactically by the characteristics of the corresponding noun: beige jackets.

• solid: red th, red Wow, red wow
• soft: syn th, syn his, syn to him
• mixed: great Ouch, more Wow, more them.