The traditional grammars often began with the a statement of the ‘parts of speech’, which today would be called ‘word classes’. According to most grammars there are nine notional parts of speech. They are (with typical examples): [5]
– Noun (wolf, door, daughter, tennis)
– Pronoun (I, you, my, which)
– Adjective (unclear, gorgeous, slim, old)
– Numeral (nine, first, one)
– Verb (know, retire, smile)
– Adverb (quickly, strongly, never, extremely)
– Conjunction (and, but, because)
– Prepositions (Under, at, down)
– Modal words (probably, surely, likely)
Though grammarians have been studying parts of speech for over two thousand years, the criteria used for classifying lexemes are not yet agreed upon. [2]
Grammarians in classifying the parts of speech keep to different concepts. In some books they are given in various divisions. For instance, the theoretical positions of such renowned linguists as B. A. Khaimovich, I. P. Ivanova, B. I. Rogovskaya, Kaushnskaya, L. L. Iofick, J.Brown, N. A. Kobrina.
This article discusses the problem of order of adjectives and shows differences between them.
An ‘adjective’ is a word to qualifying a noun and is used in front of a noun. The adjectives have the same form for singular and plural. They do not change for male and female.
Before nouns:
What a lovely colour! He’s a kind man. [3]
Какой любимый цвет! Он добрый мужчина.
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making our writing and speaking much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive, and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun and pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.
Adjectives are part of speech characterized by the following typical features: [2]
- Lexico-grammatical meaning of attributes.
- The morphological category of the degrees of comparison.
- The characteristic combinability with nouns.
- The stem building affixes –ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, -un, -pre, in-, etc.
- Its functions of an attribute and a predicative complement.
When several adjectives come before a noun they usually have to be put in a particular order, we say
a slim young lady, not a young slim lady. Стройная молодая дама.
a small shiny black leather handbag, not a leather shiny small handbag. [6]
Маленькая блестящая чёрная кожаная дамская сумка.
Unfortunately, the rules for adjective order are very complicated, and different grammars disagree about details. But through the comparing and searching in different linguistic points of views we can clarify it.
In Jenny Dooley and Virgina Evans’s grammar book we can see following usings:
There are opinion adjectives and fact adjectives. Opinion adjectives such as a smart, bad,... show what a person thinks of somebody or something. Fact adjectives such as a short, big, old,.. give us factual information about age, size, colour, origin, material,..We do not use a long list of adjectives before a single noun. A noun is usually described by one, two, or three adjectives at the most. [1]
An expensive Italian bag. Дорогая Итальянская сумка.
An interesting antique clock. Интересные антикварные часы.
In Michael Swan’s usage adjectives (or modifying nouns) of colour, origin, material, and purpose usually goes in that order.
Colour Origin Material Purpose Noun
a red Spanish leather riding boots
a brown German beer mug
He noted that the adjectives usually go before words of colour, origin, material and purpose. It is impossible to give exact rules, but adjectives of size, length and height often come first.
A big modern brick house (NOT a modern, big brick house)
Большой современный кирпичный дом. (А не Cовременный большой кирпичный дом.)
Adjectives which express judgement or attitudes usually come before all others. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful.
A lovely, long, cool, drink Who’s that silly fat man over there?. [6]
Любимый, огромный, прохладный напиток. Кто тот глупый толстый мужчина вон там?
R. Murphy mentioned that sometimes two or more fact adjectives are used together. Usually (but not always) fact adjectives are put in this order:
1 2 3 4 5
how big? how old? what colour? where from? what is it made of?
an old white cotton shirt (2→3→5) старая белая хлопковая рубашка
a large wooden table (1→ 5) огромный деревянный стол
When there are two or more adjectives, and is used:
a black and white dress a red, white and green flag [4]
чёрное и белое платье красный, белый и зеленый флаг
But among all the orders of adjectives, the order Michael Vince used is very easy and clear:
Opinion lovely, difficult
Size large, long
Age old, second — hand
Shape round, square
Temperature hot, cold
Colour green,blue
Material wooden, plastic
Purpose (what it is for?) swimming pool
Final noun swimming pool [7]
An old leather football boot. (age, material, purpose, noun)
Старая кожаная футбольная бутса.
A lovely green silk shirt. (opinion, colour, material, noun) [7]
Любимая зеленая шелковая рубашка.
In accordance with the results of the mentioned above, a leaner should learn comparing different approaches to the topic. When using a number of adjectives we should be careful with the order of adjectives and its rules.
References:
- Jenny Dooley- Virgina Evans. Grammarway 3. Expressing Publishing.1999. p 150.
- Khaimovich B. S. Rogovskaya B. I. Teoритическая грамматика английского языка M. “ Высшая школа”- 1987 p 32, p75.
- Nettle Mark and Hopkins Diana. Developing Grammar in Context. Cambridge University Press.
- Murphy Raymond. English Grammar in Use. Third Edition. Cambridge University Press.2005. p 198.
- Palmer Frank. Grammar. Penguin books.1971.p 58.
- Swan Michael. Practical English usage.International student’s edition. Second edition. Oxford University press.1996. p 8.
- Vince Michael. English Grammar and Vocabulary. Intermediate Language Practice.Macmillan.2003. p 146.
