Defining an adjective as something that modifies or describes a noun will only get us so far. And often fail us! There are many ways we can modify and describe a noun, including using other nouns and verbs! Syntactic tests are a fabulous way to confirm if something is an adjective.
When we use a syntactic test to see how a word behaves structurally, it is more reliable than a simple definition. Adjectives can take comparative and superlative forms, either with a suffix or in a phrase. The suffix -er yields a comparative form, like we see in higher, bigger, prettier, etc... while the suffix -est yields the superlative (highest, biggest, prettiest, etc...). Many words don't take these suffixes, but rather use more or most. "That was more fun than I expected!" "He was the most aggressive dog I've ever encountered."
(I learned about syntactic tests from Linguist~Educator Exchange alongside the book "This Language, A River" by Smith & Kim while studying grammar in depth for a year.)
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7 сен 2024
