ADJECTIVES.

1. An Adjective is a word that goes with a noun to describe or point out the thing denoted by the noun—and hence to limit the application of the noun; or, more simply,—
            Adjectives are noun-marking words.

(i) Adjectives do not assert explicitly, like verbs. They assert implicitly. Hence they are implicit predicates. Thus, if I say, “I met three old men,” I make three statements: (1) I met men; (2) The men were old; (3) The men were three in number. But these statements are not explicitly made.

(ii) Adjectives enlarge the content, but limit the extent of the idea expressed by the noun. Thus when we say “white horses,” we put a larger content into the idea of horse; but, as there are fewer white horses than horses, we limit the extent of the notion.

2. An adjective cannot stand by itself. It must have with it a noun either expressed or understood. In the sentence “The good are happy,” persons is understood after good.

3. Adjectives are of four kinds. They are (i) Adjectives of Quality; (ii) Adjectives of Quantity; (iii) Adjectives of Number; (iv) Demonstrative Adjectives. Or we may say,—
Adjectives are divided into

These four answer, respectively, to the questions—

(i) Of what sort? (ii) How much? (iii) How many? (iv) Which?

4. Qualitative Adjectives denote a quality of the subject or thing named by the noun; such as blue, white; happy, sad; big, little.

(i) The word qualitative comes from the Lat. qualis = of what sort.

(ii) Most of these adjectives admit of degrees of comparison.

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5. Quantitative Adjectives denote either quantity or indefinite number; and they can go either (i) with the singular, or (ii) with the plural of nouns, or (iii) with both. The following is a list:—

(i) We find the phrases: Little need; little wool; much pleasure; more sense; some sleep, etc.

(ii) We find the phrases: All men; any person; both boys; several pounds, etc.

(iii) We find the phrases: Any man and any men; no man and no men; enough corn and soldiers enough; some boy and some boys, etc.

6. Numbering or Numeral Adjectives express the number of the things or persons indicated by the noun. They are generally divided into Cardinal Numerals and Ordinal Numerals. But Ordinal Numerals are in reality Demonstrative Adjectives.

(i) Numeral comes from the Lat. numerus, a number. Hence also come numerous, numerical, and number (the b serves as a cushion between the m and the r).

(ii) Cardinal comes from the Lat. cardo, a hinge.

(iii) Ordinal comes from the Lat. ordo, order.

7. Demonstrative Adjectives are those which are used to point out the thing expressed by the noun; and, besides indicating a person or thing, they also indicate a relation either to the speaker or to something else.

(i) Demonstrative comes from the Lat. demonstro, I point out. From the same root come monster, monstrous, &c.

8. Demonstrative Adjectives are of three kinds: (i) Articles; (ii) Adjective Pronouns (often so called); and (iii) the Ordinal Numerals.

(i) There are two articles (better call them distinguishing adjectives) in our language: a and the. a is a broken-down form of ane, the northern form of one; and before a vowel or silent h it retains the n. In some phrases a has its old sense of one; as in “two of a trade;” “all of a size,” etc.
        “An two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind.”
                    Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing, III. v. 40).

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(ii) We must be careful to distinguish the article a from the broken-down preposition a in the phrase “twice a week.” This latter a is a fragment of on; and the phrase in O.E. was “tuwa on wucan.” Similarly, the in “the book” is not the same as the in “the more the merrier.” The latter is the old ablative of thaet; and is = by that.

(iii) Adjective Pronouns or Pronominal Adjectives are so called because they can be used either as adjectives with the noun, or as pronouns for the noun. They are divided into the following four classes:—
(a) Demonstrative Adjective Pronouns — This, these; that, those; yon, yonder.
(b) Interrogative Adjective Pronouns — Which? what? whether (of the two)?
(c) Distributive Adjective Pronouns — Each, every, either, neither.
(d) Possessive Adjective Pronouns — My, thy, his, her, etc. (These words perform a double function. They are adjectives, because they go with a noun; and pronouns, because they stand for the noun or name of the person speaking or spoken of.)

(iv) The Ordinal Numerals are: First, second, third, etc.

9. Some adjectives are used as nouns, and therefore take a plural form. Thus we have Romans, Christians, superiors, elders, ones, others, nobles, etc. Some take the form of the possessive case, as either’s, neither’s.

(i) The plural of one as an adjective is two, three, etc.; of one as a noun, ones. Thus we can say, “These are poor strawberries, bring me better ones.” Other numeral adjectives may be used as nouns. Thus Wordsworth, in one of his shorter poems, has—

“The sun has long been set;
    The stars are out by twos and threes;
The little birds are piping yet
    Among the bushes and trees.”

(ii) Our language is very whimsical in this matter. We can say Romans and Italians; but we cannot say Frenches and Dutches. Milton has (Paradise Lost, iii. 438) Chineses.

NUMERALS.

10. Cardinal Numerals are those which indicate numbers alone. Some of them are originally nouns, as dozen, hundred, thousand, and million; but these may also be used as adjectives.

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(i) One was in A.S. an or ane. The pronunciation wun is from a western dialect. It is still rightly sounded in its compounds atone, alone, lonely. None and no are the negatives of one and o (= an and a).

(ii) Two, from A.S. twegen mas.; twa fem. The form twegen appears in twain and twin, the g having been absorbed.

(iii) Eleven = en (one) + lif (ten). Twelve = twe (two) + lif (ten).

(iv) Thirteen = three + ten. The r has shifted its place, as in third.

(v) Twenty = twen (two) + tig (ten). Tig is a noun, meaning “a set of ten.” The guttural was lost, and it became ty.

(vi) Score, from A.S. sceran, to cut. Accounts of sheep, cattle, etc., were kept by notches on a stick; and the twentieth notch was made deeper, and was called the cut—the score.

11. Ordinal Numerals are Adjectives of Relation formed mostly from the Cardinals. They are: First, Second, Third, Fourth, etc.

(i) First is a contraction of the A.S. fyrrest (farthest).

(ii) Second is not Eng. but Latin. The O.E. for second was other. Second comes (through French) from the Latin, secundus, following—that is, following the first. A following or favourable breeze (“a wind that follows fast”) was called by the Romans a “secundus ventus.” Secundus comes from Lat. sequor, I follow. Other words from the same root are sequel, consequence, etc.

(iii) Third, by transposition, from A.S. thridda. A third part was called thriding (where the r keeps its right place); as a fourth part was a fourthing, or farthing. Thriding was gradually changed into Riding, one of the three parts into which Yorkshire was divided.

(iv) In eigh-th, as in eigh-teen, a t has vanished.

THE INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES.

12. The modern English adjective has lost all its old inflexions for gender and case, and retains only two for number. These two are these (the plural of this) and those (the plural of that).

(i) The older plural was thise—pronounced these, and then so spelled. In this instance, the spelling, as so seldom happens, has followed pronunciation. In general in the English language, the spelling and the pronunciation keep quite apart, and have no influence on each other.

(ii) Those was the oldest plural of this, but in the 14^th century it came to be accepted as the plural of that.

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13. Most adjectives are now inflected for purposes of comparison only.

14. There are three Degrees of Comparison: the Positive; the Comparative; and the Superlative.

(i) The word degree comes from the French degré, which itself comes from the Latin gradus, a step. From the same root come grade, gradual, degrade, etc.

15. The Positive Degree is the simple form of the adjective.

16. The Comparative Degree is that form of the adjective which shows that the quality it expresses has been raised one step or degree higher. Thus we say sharp, sharper; cold, colder; brave, braver. The comparative degree brings together only two ideas. Thus we may speak of “the taller of the two,” but not “of the three.”

Comparative comes from the Lat. compăro, I bring together.

17. The Comparative degree is formed in two ways: either (i) by adding er to the positive; or (ii) if the adjective has two syllables (the last ending in a consonant) or more, by placing the adverb more before the adjective.

Rules: I. A silent e is dropped; as brave, braver.
            II. A y after a consonant is changed into i before er, etc.; as happy, happier.
            III. A final consonant after a short vowel is doubled; as red, redder; cruel, crueller.
            IV. In choosing between er and more, sound and custom seem to be the safest guides. Thus we should not say selecter, but more select; not infirmer, but more infirm. Carlyle has beautifullest, etc.; but his is not an example to be followed.

18. The Superlative Degree is that form of the adjective which shows that the quality it expresses has been raised to the highest degree. The superlative degree requires that three things, or more, be compared. Thus “He is the tallest of the two” would be incorrect.

Superlative comes from the Lat. superlatīvus, lifting up above.

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19. The Superlative degree is formed in two ways: either (i) by adding est to the positive; or (ii) if the adjective has two syllables (the last ending in a consonant) or more, by placing the adverb most before the adjective.

(i) Happiest; most recent; most beautiful.

20. Some adjectives, from the very nature of the ideas they express, do not admit of comparison. Such are golden, wooden; left, right; square, triangular; weekly, monthly; eternal, perpetual, etc.

21. The most frequently used adjectives have irregular comparisons. The following is a list:—

(i) Worse and worse come, not from bad, but from the root weor, evil. (War comes from the same root.) The s in worse is a part of the root; and the full comparative is really worser, which was used in the 16^th century (Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” III. iv. 157). Worst = worsest.

(ii) The th in farther is intrusive. Farther is formed on a false analogy with further; as could (from can) is with would (from will). Farther is used of progression in space; further, of progression in reasoning.

(iii) Former was in A.S. forma (= first). It is a superlative form with a comparative sense.

(iv) Better comes from A.S. bet = good—a root which was found in betan, to make good, and in the phrase to boot = “to the good.”

(v) Later and latest refer to time; latter and last to position in space or in a series. Last is as by assimilation from latst; as best is from betst.

(vi) Less does not come from the lit in little; but from the A.S. las, weak. Least = laesest.

(vii) Nighest is contracted into next; as highest was into hext. Thus gh + s = k + s = x.

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(viii) We say “the oldest man that ever lived,” and “the eldest of the family.” Older and oldest refer to mere number; elder and eldest to a family or corporate group.

(ix) Rathe is still found in poetry. Milton has “the rathe primrose, that forsaken dies;” and Coleridge, “twin buds too rathe to bear the winter’s unkind air.” The Irish pronunciation rayther is the old English pronunciation.

(x) Hind is used as an adjective in the phrase “the hind wheels.”

22. The following are defective comparatives and superlatives:—

(i) After, as an adjective, is found in aftermath and afterthought.

(ii) In is used as an adjective in the word in-side; and as a noun in the phrase “the ins and outs” of a question.

(iii) In the inns of law, the utter-bar (outer-bar) is opposed to the inner-bar.

(iv) The neth in nether is the same as the neath in beneath.

(v) The ov in over is the ove in above, and is a dialectic form of up. It is still found in such names as Over Leigh in Cheshire, and Over Darwen in Lancashire.

(vi) Hindmost, uttermost, are not compounds of most, but are double superlatives. There was an old superlative ending ema, which we see in Lat. extrēmus, suprēmus, etc. It was forgotten that this was a superlative, and est or ost was added. Thus we had hindema, midema. These afterwards became hindmost and midmost.

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