大学英语专业语法课件10-形容词副词Adj Adv.ppt

Lecture 10 Adjectives Adverbs The contents to be discussed Adjectives Adverbs Comparative Degree Adjectives are open-class words. They are chiefly used as modifying elements in a sentence. We will mainly concern ourselves with the following topics. The classification of adjectives A comparison between adjectives participles The syntactic functions of adjectives According to the syntactic function, adjectives may be classified into central adj. and peripheral adj. Central adj. can act as modifier and complement. Peripheral adj. can only act as modifier or complement. Examples of central adjectives: The green house belongs to Tom. The house is green. John painted the house green. Examples of peripheral adjectives: This is utter/sheer/mere nonsense. *The nonsense is utter/sheer/mere The baby is asleep. *This is an asleep baby. Classification: static adj. vs dynamic adj. Semantically, adjectives can be static and dynamic. Static adjectives describe the static characteristics of animate or inanimate objects, e.g. tall, short, big, small, beautiful, etc. Dynamic adjectives describe the dynamic properties of people or things, e.g. ambitious, careful, generous, helpful, witty, patient, etc. Observe the following pairs of constructions, what difference can you see between static and dynamic adj. She is being ambitious. *She is being beautiful. Be patient / careful, please! *Be beautiful / handsome, please! I persuaded him to be generous/economical. *I persuaded him to be short / tall. Semantically, adjectives can also be gradable and non-gradable. Gradable adjectives have comparative forms and can be modified by intensifiers, e.g. clever, short, big, small, etc. Non-gradable adjectives do not manifest comparative forms, nor can they be modified by intensifiers, e.g. biological program, Japanese car, perfect, excellent, extreme, etc. Some adjectives are derived from –ing -ed participles. –ing participle adjectives usually have active meanings, an