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Almost any noun may appear in attributive position (e.g., a geography student), but in doing so they have traditionally said to be "functioning as an adjective". Such words are like adjectives in that they function as pre-head modifiers of nouns and resist pluralization in this position (* a geographies student ).
The optional positions apply to the debatable pronoun and near synonym pairs any way/anyhow, some way/somehow, as well as to (in) no way, in every way. Examples: It was in some way(s) good; it was good in some ways; it was good somehow; it was somehow good. Certain adjectives are used fairly commonly in postpositive position.
The distinguishing characteristic of an attributive adjective phrase is that it appears inside the noun phrase that it modifies. [2] An interesting trait of these phrases in English is that an attributive adjective alone generally precedes the noun, e.g. a proud man, whereas a head-initial or head-medial adjective phrase follows its noun, e.g. a man proud of his children. [3]
Adjective phrases containing complements after the adjective cannot normally be used as attributive adjectives before a noun. Sometimes they are used attributively after the noun , as in a woman proud of being a midwife (where they may be converted into relative clauses: a woman who is proud of being a midwife ), but it is wrong to say * a ...
An adjective (abbreviated adj.) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase.Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, although historically they were classed together with nouns. [1]
Privative adjectives are non-subsective, but behave differently from ordinary non-subsectives in important respects, at least in English. While ordinary non-subsectives such as the modal adjective "alleged" can only be used in attributive position , privative adjectives can be used either in attributive or predicative position .
A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words: that is, two or more words that collectively modify a noun. Compound modifiers are grammatically equivalent to single-word modifiers and can be used in combination with other modifiers. (In the ...
In grammar, an attributive expression is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an: attributive adjective; attributive noun; attributive verb; or other part of speech, such as an attributive numeral.