How to talk about the quality of an item. About qualitative adjectives with examples

In Russian, adjectives are divided into three categories. The classification is based on the lexical and grammatical features of the parts of speech under discussion. Common to all adjectives is the designation of a constant (not changing over time) attribute of an object; differences begin with the nature of their lexical bases, expressing direct (manifesting by themselves), indirect (determined through comparison with other phenomena) and “belonging” properties and qualities of objects.

1. Qualitative adjectives. Qualitative adjectives answer the question “which?” and denote direct names of features associated with lexical meanings:
   • colors (red, pink, crimson);
     
   • spatial characteristics (right - left, straight - curved);
     
   • physical properties of objects (sour - sweet, hot - cold, light - heavy);
     
   • appearance and internal qualities people and animals (thin - fat, smart - stupid, lazy - hardworking).
     
   The characteristics expressed by qualitative adjectives can be manifested to a greater or lesser extent, and the adjectives themselves can have degrees of comparison (easy - easier - the easiest), combined with adverbs of measure and degree (very easy) and turned into them (easy). Qualitative adjectives can have antonyms (good - evil, high - low). Abstract nouns are often formed from them (sweet - sweetness, curve - curvature). Qualitative adjectives can have a full and short form (light - easy). With the help of diminutive suffixes, speakers easily give them a subjective evaluative form (light).
   All of the above characteristics do not necessarily appear in the same word, but they are not typical for other categories of adjectives, and the presence of at least one of them already indicates a qualitative characteristic of the part of speech.
   
2. Relative adjectives. Relative adjectives answer the question “which?” and denote indirect names of characteristics defined through the relationship to another:
   • object or person ( Orange juice– orange juice, children’s clothing – clothes for children);
     
   • action (washing powder – washing powder);
     
   • time or place (spring rain - rain that falls in the spring; urban transport - transport operating in the city);
     
   • concept (philosophical treatise).
     
   Relative adjectives do not have degrees of comparison. Most often, they can be replaced by prepositional-nominal combinations with the words from which they are formed (see above). Relative adjectives are characterized by a derivative nature, while qualitative adjectives themselves serve as the basis for other words.
   Relative adjectives can become qualitative. This usually happens in cases where a word gets into other content and changes its lexical meaning (iron lattice - a lattice made of iron and an iron will - strong, strong, unbending).
   
3. Possessive adjectives. Possessive names adjectives answer the question “whose?” and indicate that one object belongs to another. As a rule, possessive adjectives indicate an animate person - a person (mother's robe, uncle's car) or an animal (a bear's den). Belonging to inanimate objects in Russian is usually expressed using relative adjectives or other parts of speech, but sometimes here (mainly in fiction, in the author’s, metaphorical context) you can find possessive adjectives - for example, Mayakovsky’s rib arches.
   Possessive adjectives are formed from nouns using two groups of suffixes:
   • -ov (-ev), -in (-yn);
     
   • -y, -ya, -ye, -other, -sky.
     
   Possessive adjectives can pass into the category of both relative (beaver house - possessive meaning, beaver collar - relative) and qualitative: (bear's den - possessive meaning, disservice - qualitative) parts of speech.
   

Let's summarize. The category of an adjective can be determined based on its lexical meaning. At the beginning, it is worth asking a question and looking at what exactly this or that word means: whether it is valuable in itself (qualitative adjective) and whether it refers to some inanimate object (relative adjective) or an animate person (possessive adjective).

According to the difference in the questions “which?” - "whose?" Possessive adjectives are easily separated from qualitative and relative adjectives. The easiest way to identify quality adjectives is to try to change them, give them a subjective assessment, put them in a short form, or develop their quality to one degree or another. Relative adjectives “seem” to form combinations of two nouns whenever possible.

Derivative signs.

Syntactic features.

They agree with nouns in gender, number, case (of an interesting film - R.p., singular, m.p.); and acting as the main member of the phrase, they control the noun (pale (head word) from excitement). In sentences they act as a definition or predicate; short forms perform only the function of a predicate (silent night).

The most productive ways to form adjectives are:

Suffixal – morning arr. from morning o+ - enn.

Reinforced concrete – reinforced concrete

Forest-steppe, steamship

Prefixal-suffixal – Moscow region – Moscow +-n

Addition method – bitter-salted – bitter + salty

Method of addition with simultaneous suffixation - car repair - car + repair (interface O and suffix - n)

Morphological-syntactic – adjectivation – closed (adj.) character, first (adj.) grade

2. According to meaning and grammatical features, adjectives are traditionally divided into 3 categories:

Quality

Relative

Possessives

The core of the adjective class is formed by qualitative adjectives.

Quality indicate a directly perceived feature of an object: blue, long. They can name the mental and physical qualities of a person: kind, strong; animal colors: bay; colors: pink; item size: large, narrow.

Signs:

Qualitative adjectives are characterized by the ability/ability to have:

1. Full inflected form and parallel indeclinable form: huge - huge.

2. Change according to degrees of comparison: beautiful - more beautiful - most beautiful.

3. Form correlative adverbs starting with –O or –E: quiet – quietly.

4. Form abstract nouns: blue-blue, kind-kindness.

5. The ability to enter into antonymic relationships: quiet - loud, beautiful - ugly.

6. Form forms of subjective assessment (handsome, cute).

7. Combine with adverbs of measure and degree (very narrow).

8. Some qualitative adjectives are non-derivative words (brown, bay, narrowй - - narrow root, when forming words of the same root, the productive stem is truncation).

these features have these features, but if the adjective has at least one of listed signs, that means it is QUALITY.

They denote the attribute of an object indirectly - through its relationship to another object, action or circumstance ( wooden house, adolescence, city beach).

Signs:

1. The presence of a full inflected form and the absence of a short form (brick, oat).

2. Relative adjectives are derived words, formed from nouns, verbs, numerals, adverbs using the suffixes –an-, -yan-, -ov-, -ev- (kozh en y, birch ov y), -sk- (Belgorod sk th), -enn- (pumpkin enne y).

3. All relative adjectives denote constant, unchangeable characteristics.

4. Can be replaced by a synonymous case form of the noun (family budget - family budget).

Possessive adjectives (which? Whose?).

They indicate that an object belongs to a person or an animal (in the broad sense).

A) actually possessive adjectives, denoting belonging to one person. These include adjectives with a zero ending in the nominative case, singular, m.p. and suffixes - ov- (-ev-), -yn- (-in-), -nin-: prince's court, nanny's tales, fathers' jacket;

B) possessive-relative adjectives, which are formed from the names of people and animals using the suffix –iii-: fisherman - fisherman th, deer - deer th (zero ending), fisherman (j-suffix, a-ending): in fisherman (ach, j-suffix, and - suffix, because it is an adverb), hare tracks, bear paw.

The scope of use of possessive adjectives, such as fathers, mothers, is limited to colloquial speech, but in phraseological turns, in geographical names they are used without stylistic restrictions (Achilles' heel, Bering Strait).

The boundary between the lexical and grammatical categories of adjectives is fluid.

1. High quality relative adjectives are relative adjectives that can take on a qualitative meaning (steel springs - relative, steel nerves - qualitative).

2. Relatively quality adjectives are qualitative adjectives that develop additional relative meanings (a deaf person is qualitative, a deaf consonant is relative, a fast step is qualitative, a fast train is

relative).

3. High quality possessive adjectives are possessive adjectives in qualitative use (fox hole - possessive, fox cunning - qualitative, wolfish appetite).

4. Regarding – possessive adjectives are possessive adjectives in relative use (fox collar - relative, fox hole - possessive, wolf pack- relative).

In some cases, adjectives formed from the names of animals first turn into relative adjectives, and then into qualitative adjectives (veal head - possessive, veal chop - relative, veal tenderness - qualitative).

An adjective is an independent part of speech that denotes a characteristic of the object being discussed in a sentence. Adjective answers questions Whose? or Which? For example: red (rose), huge (territory), iron (shovel), mother's (car).

An adjective is associated with a noun and agrees with it, that is, it changes according to cases, gender and numbers. Examples: Interesting story (masculine), interesting book(feminine). Interesting stories (plural), interesting story(singular).

Qualitative and relative adjectives

Adjectives are divided into two types: qualitative and relative adjectives. Qualitative adjectives always indicate quality characteristics an object, as well as the characteristic that an object may have to a greater or lesser extent. Examples of qualitative adjectives: tasty, strong, beautiful, small, tall. From such adjectives we can create a degree of comparison: more delicious, very beautiful, very small.

Relative adjectives indicate the relationship of one thing to another. Relative adjectives very often indicate the material from which an object is made. For example: iron bed, porcelain dishes.

Relative adjectives indicate the state of an object at a certain point in time. For example: winter day, evening sun, morning exercises. In this case, adjectives are formed on the basis of a noun: morning - morning, winter - winter.

The category of relative adjectives also includes possessive adjectives. Such adjectives indicate that one object belongs to another person (or object). For example: sister's brooch, dad's car, bear's den.

Full and short adjectives

Qualitative adjectives are divided into the following subtypes: full and short adjectives. Examples full adjectives: handsome, kind, young. From such adjectives we can create short adjectives by shortening the word, which does not change its essence. Examples: handsome, kind, young.

Full adjectives in a sentence, as a rule, they act as a definition. For example: A beautiful house stood on the edge of a forest. Brief qualitative Adjectives in a sentence are usually the predicate. For example: The breeze is fragrant and fresh.
Relative adjectives are never short.

It should be remembered that short adjectives that belong to the masculine gender, the stem of which ends in a hissing letter, are written the same way as masculine nouns - without adding soft sign at the end. For example: skinny, good, fresh, hot.

Famous linguist Yu.S. Stepanov believed that the difference quality And relative meanings of adjectives is one of the most difficult. This division is carried out not even in all languages. There are already students in Russian high school learn to distinguish between these categories of adjectives.

As you probably remember, adjectives answer questions Which? which? which? which?

Which? –small yard school teacher, bear claw.

Which? –wonderful weather, wooden bench, fox face.

Which? –excellent mood, pearl necklace, horse hoof.

Which? – polite students, regional competitions, bunny ears.

Each row contains examples qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives. How to distinguish them? As has already become clear, simply asking a question about an adjective will not give results; the category cannot be determined in this way.

Grammar and semantics(meaning of the word). Let's consider each category of adjectives by meaning .

Qualitative adjectives

It’s already clear from the name what these adjectives mean. quality of the item. What kind of quality could this be? Color(lilac, burgundy, bay, black), form(rectangular, square), physical characteristics of living things (fat, healthy, active), temporal and spatial features (slow, deep), general qualities, inherent in an animate object ( angry, funny, happy), etc.

Also, most (but not all!) qualitative adjectives have a whole range of grammatical features, by which they are quite easy to distinguish from other adjectives. These features may not necessarily be a whole set for each quality adjective, but if you find that at least some attribute is suitable for this adjective - you have a quality adjective. So:

1) Qualitative adjectives denote a feature that can appear to a greater or lesser extent. Hence the ability to form degrees of comparison.

Thin – thinner – thinnest. Interesting – less interesting – the most interesting.

2) Form short forms. Long is long, short is small.

3) Combine with adverbs of measure and degree. Very beautiful, extremely entertaining, completely incomprehensible.

4) From qualitative adjectives you can form adverbs on -o(s) And nouns with abstract suffixes -ost (-is), -izn-, -ev-, -in-, -from- :magnificent - magnificent, clear - clarity, blue - blue, blue - blue, thick - thickness, beautiful - beauty.

5) You can also form words with diminutive or augmentative suffixes: angry - angry, dirty - dirty, green - green, healthy - hefty.

6) May have antonyms: big - small, white - black, sharp - dull, stale - fresh.

As you can see, there are many signs, but it is absolutely not necessary to use all of them. Remember that some quality adjectives have no degrees of comparison, some abstract nouns do not form, some cannot be combined with adverbs of measure and degree, but they fit according to other criteria.

For example, adjective bay. This adjective does not fit any grammatical criteria, but it means color = quality of item, - that means it quality.

Or adjective beautiful. You can't tell very lovely, but you can form an adverb Wonderful. Conclusion: adjective quality.

Relative adjectives

Designate a sign through an attitude towards an object. What kind of relationship could this be - signs? Material, from which the item is made ( iron nail - iron nail, stone basement - stone basement, velvet dress - velvet dress); place, time, space (today's scandal is a scandal that happened today; intercity bus – a bus between cities; Moscow region – Moscow region); appointment(parent meeting - meeting for parents, children's store - store for children), etc.

Signs of this and not temporary, but permanent, That's why Relative adjectives do not have all the features inherent in qualitative adjectives. This means that they do not form degrees of comparison(not to say that this house is wooden, and that one is more wooden), cannot be combined with adverbs of measure and degree(can't say very gold bracelet), etc.

But phrases with relative adjectives can be transform, replacing the adjective. For example, villager - village resident, milk porridge - porridge with milk, plastic cube - plastic cube.

We hope that it has become clearer to you how to distinguish between qualitative and relative adjectives. We’ll talk about possessive adjectives and some pitfalls in the next article.

Good luck in learning Russian!

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