Adjectives | Баграмян Мелине Арменовна. Работа №252981

Adjectives are traditionally divided on the basis of their semantics into two grammatically relevant subclasses: qualitative and relative adjectives.
Qualitative adjectives denote the qualities of objects as such, e.g.: red, long, beautiful, etc.
Relative adjectives denote qualities of objects in relation to other objects; such adjectives are usually derived from nouns, e.g.: wood – wooden, ice – icy, etc. The ability to form degrees of comparison is usually treated as the formal sign of qualitative adjectives, because they denote qualities which admit of quantitative estimation, e.g.: very long, rather long, not so long, long – longer - longest. But this is not exactly the case.
First, there are a number of qualitative adjectives which have no forms of comparison because their own semantics is either inherently comparative or superlative, or incompatible with the idea of comparison at all (non-gradable), e.g.:excellent, semi-final, extinct, deaf,etc.
Во-первых, ряд качественных прилагательных не могут образовывать степени сравнения, поскольку их собственная семантика либо уже внутренне предполагает сравнение или превосходство, либо несовместима с семантикой сравнения, например:excellent, semi-final, extinct, deafи др.
Second, some relative adjectives, when used figuratively, perform the samesemantic function of qualitative evaluationas qualitative adjectives proper and in such contexts acquire the ability to change their form according to the category of comparison, cf.:a golden crown:a relative adjective ‘golden’is used in its primary meaning –a crown made of gold;golden hair:a relative adjective ‘golden’is used in its figurative meaning –hair of the colour of gold;
Во-вторых, некоторые относительные прилагательные, используемые в переносном значении, выполняют такую жесемантическую функцию качественной оценки, что и собственно качественные прилагательные, и приобретают в подобных контекстах способность изменяться по категории степеней сравнения, ср.:a golden crown:относительное прилагательноеgoldenиспользуется в своем основном значении –a crown made of gold;golden hair;относительное прилагательноеgoldenиспользуется в переносном значении –hair of the colour of gold;
Among the words denoting substantive properties there is a set of words denoting states, mostly temporary states, that are used predominantly in the predicative function and are united by a common formal mark, the prefix ‘a-’, e.g.:afraid, afire, alike, etc. (cf.: the suffix ‘-o’ in Russian -холодно,тепло,весело, etc.) Their part of speech status is rather problematic. Traditionally they are referred to as “predicative adjectives” or a subtype of adverbs. In Russian linguistics such linguists as L. V. Scherba, V. V.Vinogradov and others state that these words constitute a separate class of words, a part of speech called “the category of state words”, or “statives”; their status as a separate part of speech in English is supported by B. Ilyish. There are some arguments, though, which may challenge this point of view.
Semantically the statives have no categorial meaning of their own: adjectives denote not just qualities but, as was shown above, properties of substances, and that includes stative properties too; the statives are not at all unique semantically, the same meaning can be rendered by regular adjectives, e.g.:cases alike = similar cases.
They have the same adverbial combinability and combinability with link verbs as regular adjectives, e.g.:The cases are absolutely alike.
Они характеризуются сочетаемостью с наречиями и связующими глаголами, как и все прилагательные, например:Thecasesareabsolutelyalike.
The similarity of functions can be demonstrated in coordinative groups of homogeneous notional sentence parts expressed by statives and regular adjectives, e.g.:Both cases are very much alike and highly suspicious.
Сходство функциональных признаков может быть продемонстрировано в группах однородных членов предложения, выраженных стативами и обычными прилагательными, например:Bothcasesareverymuchalikeandhighlysuspicious.
As with regular adjectives, they can be used in an evaluative function in a limited number of contexts and can even form the degrees of comparison, e.g.:^These cases are more alike than the others.
The prefix ‘a-’ can not serve as sufficient grounds for singling out this group of words in English, because in English there are statives which have no such prefix, e.g.:sorry, glad, ill, worth,etc. (The suffix‘-o’is not a unifying property of the statives in Russian either, cf.:жаль, лень, etc.)
Besides, it is a closed set of words and rather a restricted one: there are no more than 50-80 words in this group; it is not characterized by openness, like all the other notional parts of speech.
Thus, we can infer that words denoting states, though possessing important structural and functional peculiarities, are not a separate part of speech, but a specific subset within the general class of adjectives.