Nouns represent things, verbs are actions, adverbs modify verbs, and adjectives modify nouns. Adjectives can be predictive or attributive, and some can only work as one or the other. Identifying whether an adjective is attributive or predictive is not necessary for communication, but they add richness and specificity to language.
Most everyone knows that nouns are words that represent things, places, and ideas, while verbs are nouns of actions. Not everyone knows that words that describe or modify verbs are called adverbs, while those that do the same job for nouns are adjectives. Adjectives can be predictive or attributive, and for most people, it’s easier to identify an attributive adjective because they are placed directly in front of the noun.
For example, if the sky is bright blue and filled with white clouds, people say it’s a beautiful day. Here, beautiful modifies the day, and since it is placed directly before the noun, it is an attributive adjective. Moreover, the sentence contains another attributive adjective because it describes the clouds, a noun, as white.
There is also an example of a predictive adjective in the sentence above. The statement begins “If the sky is bright blue…”. Here, bright and blue modify the name sky. However, they follow the noun and require the linking verb, a form of being. This is a basic definition of a predictive adjective.
For the most part, adjectives are quite flexible. Many are happy to serve attributively or predictively. People may discuss white clouds or mention that clouds are white, for example. In the first case the adjective is attributive, while in the second it is predictive.
English, like all languages, is not a perfectly ordered package of words that always work in easily identifiable ways. In fact, not all adjectives can work predictively or attributively. For example, the adjective works only as an attributive. People may call someone a mere child, but they cannot say that the child is a mere one.
An example of an adjective that cannot do attributive work is the word fear. It’s not grammatically correct to talk about a scared kitten. Instead, people say, “Kitty is scared.”
Adding to the confusion is the fact that some adjectives are, in fact, attributive but are placed directly behind the nouns they modify rather than before them. The rich man may leave money to his heir apparent but not to his heir apparent. When the actors finish their lines, they come off stage right but not stage right. It is a fact that an attributive adjective does not require the linking verb to be or appear to make it attributive.
If someone can correctly identify whether an adjective is attributive or predictive it is not necessary for the speaker to use it correctly. Communicating using language is natural to all people, and language itself existed long before the grammatical rules that dissected it. Modifiers add richness and specificity to images and information, which is their first and only real purpose.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
