Adjective PhraseAdjective PhraseFatima Amer Al.SaiariFatima Amer Al.Saiari

Adjectives:Adjective (A) is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. Adjectives are sometimes called “describing words” in that, as far as meaning is concerned, they define attributes characteristics. Commonly occur with nouns. For instance, The dog chased a girlthe dog could have the adjective fat added to it:The fat dog chased a girl

Adjectives are used in:1. an attributive manner (precede the noun for example: a long letter) or2. a predicative manner (follow a linking verb for example: the letter

was long)

Adjective Phrase: An adjective phrase (AP) like all other phrases can consist of one or more than one word. For example,

The fat dog chased a girl.The (very) fat dog chased a girl.

The inclusion of an adverb phrase is optional, so that the constitution of an adjective phrase is:

AP → (AdvP) + A

When adjectives and adjective phrase work in this way to modify nouns, they form part of the noun phrase.

NP = the fat dog

It is, of course, possible to modify a noun with more than one adjective as in:The fat brown dog chased the girl.

AP

AdvP A

deg

very fat

FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVE PHRASES:

1. Subject Complement:A subject complement (sC) follows a linking verb ( be, seem,

appear, look, and so on ); it is normally an adjective or a noun that renames or defines in some way the subject.

For Example: Sally seems unhappy. S P sC

S

NP VP

N

Sally seems

V]intense[

AP

unhappy

A

2. Object Complement:An object complement follows and modifies or refers to a direct object.

It can be a noun or adjective or any word acting as a noun or adjective.

Kate called John stupid S P dO oC

S

NP VP

N

Kate called

V]complex[

AP

stupid

A

NP

N

John

3. Pre-modifier within NP:Adjective phrase are also used to pre-modify nouns.

The fat dog chased a girl S P dO

fat

S

NP VP

DET N’

AP N

A

Vgp]trans[

AUX V

TENSE

NP

DET N

The dog (past) chased a girl

Adjective phrase (AP)AP → (AdvP) + A

Function: 1. sC 2. oC

e.g. 1. The dog (quite disgustingly) fat 2. John made Kate angry

OR:Function: pre-modifier within NPe.g. The fat brown dog chased a girl.

The phrase Structure Rule of an Adjective Phrase

Thank You

Fatima Amer Al.Saiari