The development of the grammatical categories of adjective

 

The ending of accusative masculine singular -ne, the genitive and dative feminine singular -e (-ere) and a few isolated forms of the genitive plural were remained unchanged [7].

The old English comparative ending –ra became – re, and the superlative suffixes –est and –ost fell together as -est , as in:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
hard	harder	hardest
fair	fairer	fairest
clene	clener	clenest

 

In Middle English there was also a process of shortening vowel. It happened when the root of an adjective was long , for example:

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
swete	swetter	swettest

Middle English adjectives also had irregular comparison, for example:

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
god	better	best
bade	worse	werst
micel	more(mara)	mest(most,mast)

 
 
 MODERN ENGLISH ADJECTIVE

 

Throughout the history of English, adjectives have been used as heads in noun phrases. In O. E. and in M. E., the adjective head had a more extensive sphere of reference than today; it could refer to:

to a person

to a specific group of persons or things.

It could not, however, express the distinction between human and non-human referents, or, after the loss of inflectional endings, the singular and the plural. It was probably for this reason that (pro)nominal heads came to be preferred with adjectives, except in certain well-defined cases. This development resulted, among other things, in the establishment of the prop-word one: the rise of the compound forms of indefinite pronouns (-one, -body’) is closely related [10].

In Early Modern English adjective heads can still be used with reference to: a single individual

The younger [sing.] rises when the old [sing.] doth fall (Shakespeare King Lear III)

non-generically

I cannot but be serious in a cause... wherein my fame and the reputations of diverse honest, and learned are the question: (Johnson Volpone Epistle)

It has to be added, though that these rules are becoming infrequent in the period.

In PRESENT DAY ENGLISH adjective heads mainly refer to: abstract concepts (the mystical)

generic groups

classes of people (the rich).

In Early Modern English, adjective continued to form comparatives with –er and superlatives with –est. Analitical comparison with mo(e), more , and most wich had occur as early as Old English times also used in Early Modern English, but there are also some double comparison such as: more fitter, more better, most unkindest [3].

In Modern English many adjectives are formed from words which are other parts of speech by the addition of suffixes (-ful, -less, -y, -ly, -like, etc.) French, Latin, Greek suffixes, including –ous, -ant, -ent, -ate, -ac, (-ic), -able, (-ible), -esque, -ine, -ive, -ory, -ose, etc. also appear in many English adjectives: valorous, rampant, fluent, ornate, cardiac, poetic, tolerable, edible, grotesque, canine, civil, juvenile, elective, introductory, and verbose. In this case, some linguists propose some suffixes which typically indicate that a word is an adjective:  

Suffix	Add to	Result
-able	verb	washable
-al	noun	musical
-ed	noun	ragged
-esque	noun	romanesque
-ful	noun	hopeful
-ic	noun	heroic
-ish	noun	foolish
-ive	verb	effective
-less	noun	restless
-like	noun	childlike
-ly	noun	friendly
-ous	noun	desirous
-some	noun	bothersome
-worthy	noun	praiseworthy
-y	noun	sandy

 

In comparison, adjectives of one syllable are regularly compared by adding to the positive form –er for comparative, and –est for superlative. The only exception to this rule are few monosyllables, which are difficult to pronounce with the –er and – -est suffixes, examples: real, wrong, like, etc. Examples are:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
clear	clearer	clearest
wide	wider	widest
sweet	sweeter	sweetest

 
More and most are employed for more than two syllables adjectives. Examples are:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful
difficult	more difficult	most difficult
diligent	more diligent	most diligent

 

To show special emphasis, some adjectives of one or two syllables have both patterns of comparison: calm, calmer, calmest or calm, more calm, most calm. When it is used in the appositive position adjectives are generally compared with more and most: I never knew a man more calm or more kind than you. For phonetic reason many adjectives ending in –al, -ar, -ard, -en, -ure, -erse, -ful, -ed, -om, -ic,- is,- ive, -ous, -ose, -que, etc. are compared by the employment of more or most. Examples are:

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
musical	more musical	most musical
hopeful	more hopeful	most hopeful
heroic	more heroic	most heroic
effective	more effective	most effective
desirous	more desirous	most desirous

 

Compound adjectives are sometimes compared by inflecting the first element of the compound, for example: well-known, better-known, best-known. There are also some adjectives which are not regularly compared with –er or –est have superlative forms in –est and comparative with more. The –est superlative is preferred when the adjective has pronominal function or preceded by the definite article. For example: He is the handsomest of the boys.

Adjectives are distinguished by a specific combinability with nouns, which they modify, if not accompanied by ad-juncts, usually in pre-position, and occasionally in post-position; by a combinability with link-verbs, both functional and notional; by a combinability with modifying adverbs. Adjectives are the third major class of words in English, after nouns and verbs. Adjectives are words expressing properties of objects (e.g. large, blue, simple, clever, economic, progressive, productive, etc.) and, hence, qualifying nouns. Adjectives in Modern English do not change for number or case. The only grammatical category they have is the degrees of comparison. They are also characterized by functions in the sentence. In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an attribute and a predicative [1].

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

Language is changing from time to time. And of course, it happens to English. The English of a thousand years ago was different from the English of five hundred years ago, and so the English of today is different from the English of the fourth millennium.

The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German or Icelandic. Old English distinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition, the dual was distinguished from the more modern singular and plural. Declension was greatly simplified during the Middle English period, when the accusative and dative cases of the pronouns merged into a single oblique case that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions.

The differences of the English from centuries to centuries are observed not only in a certain aspect, but on many aspects as well as on the English adjective. The Old English adjective had inflectional modification to indicate numbers, genders, cases, and degrees of comparisons, and there was a distinction of weak and strong declensions. In Middle English, most of the declensional distinctions were lost, the general tendency of the language is to drop all suffixes. Adjectives in Modem English do not change their forms to show changes in number, case, or gender; and only a few adjectives of the pronominal class possess meanings which indicate number. One, and every, each modify singular nouns while several, few, many modify only plural substantives. In Modem English no adjective is capable of indicating gender or case.

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 
1. Baugh A.C. and T. Cable. A History of the English Language. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1978.

2. Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

3. Hogg, R and A. Denison. A history of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

4. Frank, Marcella. Modern English Grammar: a Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972.

5. Suwardy, A. The development of English Adjectives.

6. Wardhaugh, R. An Introduction to Social linguistics Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1992.

7. An Elementary Middle English Grammar; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928.

8. R. B. Le Page, ‘What is Language.’ ERIC: Educational Informational Resources Center.www.eric.ed.gov.

9. Расторгуева Т.А. История английского  языка: Учебник-2-е изд., стер. – М.: ООО» Издательство Астрель», 2003. – 348 с. – На англ. яз.

10. albertus2610@yahoo.com

11. www.cambridge.org/9780521662277

12. http://www.kul.pl/files/165/history%20of%20english/10Adjectives.pdf.