PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVE

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language

PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVE, also predicate adjective. An ADJECTIVE that occurs in the PREDICATE: silent in Eliot remained silent; uncomfortable in Naomi made her brother uncomfortable. The relationship of the adjective is with the subject, following a linking verb (for example remain: compare Eliot was silent), or with the direct object that the adjective follows (compare Her brother became uncomfortable). Some adjectives can only be used predicatively: asleep (The children were all asleep, but not the asleep children); aware (They were not aware of the danger, but not usually an aware person). Increasingly commonly, the term predicative adjective is used to refer only to such adjectives, in contrast to attributive adjective (an adjective used before a noun). Some adjectives can only be used attributively: for example, undue, as in undue pressure (not the pressure is undue). See ATTRIBUTIVE, COMPLEMENT.

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© Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998.

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