The Attribute

The qualificative relationship can be actualised by the attributive bond. The paradigm of these linguistic means is rather manifold. We find here:

1) adjectives: the new house; a valuable thing;

2) nouns in the Possessive Case: my brother's book;

3) noun-adjunct groups (N + N): world peace, spring time;

4) prepositional noun-groups: the daughter of my friend;

5) pronouns (possessive, demonstrative, indefinite): my joy, such flowers, every morning, a friend of his, little time;

6) infinitives and infinitival groups: an example to follow, a thing to do;

7) gerunds and participles: (a) walking distance, swimming suit;

(b) a smiling face, a singing bird;

8) numerals: two friends, the first task;

9) words of the category of state: faces alight with happiness;

10) idiomatic phrases: a love of a child, a jewel of a nature, etc.

If an adjective is modified by several adverbs the latter are generally placed as follows: adverbs of degree and qualitative adverbs stand first and next come modal adverbs, adverbs denoting purpose, time and place, e. g.:

usually intentionally very active 3 2 1 A

politically and socially 4

It comes quite natural that the collocability of adverbs with adjectives is conditioned by the semantic peculiarities of both. Some adverbs of degree, for instance, are freely employed with all qualitative adjectives (absolutely, almost, extremely, quite, etc.), others are contextually restricted in their use. Thus, for instance, the adverb seriously will generally modify adjectives denoting physical or mental state, the adverb vaguely (—not clearly expressed) goes patterning with adjectives associated with physical or mental perception.