Attributive Adjectives

What is an attributive adjective?

Adjectives that describe a characteristic of a noun or pronoun are called attributive adjectives. They are part of a noun phrase and typically appear before or after the noun in a sentence.
(명사(noun) 나 대명사(pronoun)의 특징을 설명하는 형용사 (adjective) 를 한정형용사 (Attributive Adjective)라고 한다. 한정형용사는 명사구의 일부이며 일반적으로 문장에서 명사의 앞이나 뒤에 나타난다.)

Attributive vs. Predicative Adjectives

Attributive adjectives are used to describe a characteristic of the noun or pronoun that they modify and typically appear before the noun in a sentence. In contrast, predicative adjectives come after the noun they modify and are linked to it by a linking verb.
(형용사는 명사나 대명사가 수식하는 특징을 설명하는 데 사용되며, 일반적으로 문장에서 명사 앞에 나타난다. 반대로, 서술형 형용사는 수식하는 명사 뒤에 오고 연결 동사에 의해 그것과 연결된다.)
For example, in the sentence

• “The black dog is barking,”

“black” is an attributive adjective as it is part of the noun phrase “black dog.” In contrast, in the sentence

• “The dog was black,” “black” is a predicative adjective as it comes after the noun “dog” and is linked to it by the linking verb “was.”
• It is worth noting that some adjectives can only be used in the predicative forms, such as “afloat,” “afraid,” “alike,” “alone,” “asleep,” “awake,” “aware,” “upset,” and “well.”

For example:

• “The baby is asleep.” (correct)
• “The asleep baby is in the crib.” (incorrect)

• “The woman is well again.” (correct)
• “The well woman got out of bed.” (incorrect)

If you want to learn more about predicative adjectives, they are dealt with in greater detail in another section of this chapter.

Restrictive vs. Non-Restrictive Attributive Adjectives

Adjectives that are used to describe nouns can be classified as either restrictive or non-restrictive. Restrictive adjectives are used to specify which particular noun is being referred to, while non-restrictive adjectives are used to provide additional information about a noun that has already been clearly identified. It is important to understand the distinction between these two types of adjectives, as demonstrated in the examples provided.

• “She was emotional, and would avoid a sad film at all costs.”
• “Titanic was a sad film that no viewer could finish with dry eyes.”

In the first sentence, sad is restrictive: it tells us what kind of films she avoids. In the second sentence, sad is non-restrictive. We already know that Titanic is the film in question; the adjective sad simply serves to describe it further.

Prepositive adjectives: Before the noun

Attributive adjectives, which describe a noun, typically come before the noun they modify, as in “The black dog is barking.” These are called prepositive or prenominal adjectives. However, some adjectives can only be used in this position and cannot come after the noun, unlike most attributive adjectives which can also be used as predicative adjectives after the noun. Some of these are: main, former, and mere.

• “The main idea is at the beginning of the paragraph.” (correct)
• “The idea at the beginning of the paragraph is main.” (incorrect)

Another adjective that only occurs attributively before the noun is the word utter, which provides heavy emphasis to the noun it modifies:

• “The dress was in utter ruin.” (correct)
• “The ruin was utter.” (incorrect)

Postpositive Adjectives: After the noun

Attributive adjectives are often defined as adjectives that come before the noun or pronoun they modify. However, it is more complex than that. They are usually placed before the noun, especially in simple sentences, but they can also come after the noun. When this happens, they are called postpositive or postnominal adjectives.  This often occurs in the following cases:

Terms derived from other languages

Postpositive adjective placement is very common in other languages, especially those derived from Latin. Postpositive placement in English occurs especially when using terms that were borrowed from French, a Latin-derived language.

English borrows many official, military, governmental, and administrative terms from other languages, and the adjectives have retained their postpositive position. For example:

• Legal and financial terms: body politic, court-martial, pound sterling, accounts payable, and heir apparent.
• Important positions of individuals: secretary-general, poet laureate, attorney general, princess royal, and professor emeritus.

In these types of terms, it’s conventional to pluralize the noun, not the adjective. For example:

• “One poet laureate.”
• “Two poets laureate.”

However, it is becoming more and more common for writers to treat these terms as compound nouns, pluralizing the adjective instead of the noun:

• “Two poet laureates.”

Traditional grammarians, though, consider the pluralization of the adjective to be incorrect.

After indefinite pronouns

Attributive adjectives almost always appear postpositively when they modify indefinite pronouns, such as someone, anyone, nobody, anyone, etc.

For example:

• “I wish I could find somebody perfect for the job.”
• “We can give these jeans to anybody tall.”
• “Is anyone talented at math here?”

After superlative attributive adjectives

Superlative adjectives are those that that compare three or more nouns to indicate which exhibits the highest degree of something, for example: the best, the worst, the tallest, the biggest, etc. When a superlative adjective is used attributively before a noun, we can use other attributive adjectives in a postpositive position for emphasis.

• “Let’s find the best hotel possible.”
• “She’s the worst singer present.”

In addition, the attributive adjective can sometimes come before the noun when paired with a superlative, as in:

• “We climbed the highest nearby mountain.”

Some adjectives ending in “-able/-ible”

Often, attributive adjectives ending in “-able/-ible” are placed in the postpositive position:

• “It’s the only time available.”
• “It’s the only option imaginable.”

Be careful though, because sometimes placing an adjective of this type in the prepositive or postpositive position can actually change the meaning of the sentence. For example:

• “She’s looking for a responsible man.”

In this sentence, responsible is in the prepositive position and seems to be a good characteristic. She is likely looking for a man who can be trusted. If we place the word responsible in the postpositive position, though, we have a very different meaning:

• “She’s looking for the man responsible.”

In this sentence, the word responsible takes on a different connotation, perhaps a negative one. She’s looking for the man who has done something; in most cases, the “something” is negative, such as a mistake or even a crime.

Not many adjectives change meaning so drastically based on their position in the sentence, but it is something to be aware of.

After expressions of measurement

Nouns are often used in combination with numbers and adjectives to give measurements of height, depth, age, etc. For example:

• “He’s only one year old.”
• “She’s five feet tall.”
• “The river is five miles long.”
• “The lake is one kilometer deep.”

A notable exception to this pattern is when we discuss weight. Instead, we use the verb weigh and a unit of measurement, or else just the unit of weight after the verb be. For example:

• “She weighs 120 pounds.” (correct)
• “She is 120 pounds.” (correct)
• “She is 120 pounds heavy.” (incorrect)

When the adjective modifies the object of factitive verbs

Factitive verbs are used to describe an action that results in a new condition or state of a person or thing. When an adjective modifies the direct object of a factitive verb, it is known as an object complement, and we place it in the postpositive position. For example:

• “He makes her happy.”
• “I find horror films terrifying.”
• “We painted the wall yellow.”

For poetic effect

Postpositive placement of attributive adjectives is frequently used for poetic effect, as it gives a somewhat archaic and literary twist to otherwise plain expressions. Take for example this excerpt from the poem “Happiness,” by Thomas Frederick Young:

• “Fair Happiness, I’ve courted thee,
• And used each cunning art and wile,
• Which lovers use with maidens coy,
• To win one tender glance or smile.”

In this example, the poet places the adjectives coy after the plural noun maidens, instead of before it, creating a stronger poetic effect.

We can see the same effect again in the poem “The Bouquet,” by Edward Smyth Jones:

• “A blossom pink,
• A blossom blue,
• Make all there is in love
• So true.”

The same phenomenon can also be seen in titles of books and films, which often use postpositive placement for its dramatic effect. Consider the titles of works such as Jupiter Ascending, The Matrix Reloaded, or The Brothers Karamazov, for example.