Hi Shizuka,

Very good question, and not one I’m sure I can fully answer confidentally! I think you’re right that technically as a modification of an adjective they are performing an adverbial function, or at least appear to present the same information, but it’s another one where it would depend on what we’re trying to demonstrate. Off the top of my head, I suppose adjective complements more connect to a specific noun/object, while we might use adverbials more to discuss wider issues such as conditions/situations/times. Such as:

The children are happy about their new toys. [Connected to a noun that defines the source of happiness as an adjective complement]
The children are happy in the garden. [Connected to a place that does not necessarily define a source of happiness]

Phil

I understand adjective complements to be a phrase or clause that provides information necessary to complete an adjective phrase’s meaning. In addition, I understand that prepositional phrases typically serve as adjective complements. Some examples are:

My wife is worried about our financial situation (prepositional phrase “about our financial situation” serving as the complement to the adjective “worried”).
This restaurant is famous for its burgers.
Many little girls are fond of playing with dolls.

My question is whether such adjective complements are in fact also serving as adverbs/adverbial phrases since by complementing the adjective (hence they are called adjective complements), these prepositional phrases are also in effect modifying (i.e. adding or limiting the sense of) the meaning of the adjectives, and since we know anything that modifies an adjective can be considered as adverbial or functioning as an adverb/adverb phrase, am I right then to conclude that these prepositional phrases which serve as adjective complements are in fact also acting as adverbs/adverbial phrases?

Or is there a difference between adjective complements and adverbs/adverbial phrases?

Hi Shizuka,

Yes, I think that’s absolutely fine!

Phil

Hi Phil,

Interesting post above. Don’t mind me chipping in with my usual habit of wanting to summarize.

So in other words, what you are saying is that:

(1) the definitions [that is verbs are words which describe (i.e. express or denote) actions, state or occurrence, and adjectives are words which describe (i.e. give more information and thereby adding or limiting the sense/meaning of) a noun or pronouns] are correct.

(2) “describe” is indeed being used in two different ways here, one for verbs to mean denote/express/represent, and the other for adjectives to mean “give more information”.

(3) to avoid confusion, it would be best to simply define verbs as words which denote, express or represent actions/states/occurrences.

(4) as for adjectives, being describing words, we can stick with the current definition, i.e. adjectives are words which describe (i.e. give more information and thereby adding or limiting the sense/meaning of) a noun or pronouns.

May I know if these all 4 points (S/N (1) to S/N (4)) are correct? Thanks!

Hi Shizuka,

You’re correct technically a noun phrase’s purpose could be served by a single word – but to the dictionary’s point, yes, phrase would typically be used if we have more than one word, otherwise can simply state the function of the single word (i.e. “noun phrase” is redundant for a single noun as it is, more simply, “a noun”). But it’s simpler to use the term phrase as a catch all for single or multiword grammatical functions to address what it does rather than the specifics of how many words we use; you can also see the same done in reverse, sometimes, where someone will refer to the “noun” in a sentence as meaning the grouped words that make it up. Technically it may not be the most accurate way to speak, but again, it depends on what information we are trying to convey, and whether getting into the real specifics will make any difference to clarity.

On your adjective phrase point, yes that’s a fair summary. And yes, you’ve broken down the prepositional phrase examples in a reasonable manner. The prepositional phrases are adding information to the adjective state, so it’s fair to say they complement it and form part of the overall adjective phrase. Again there would be some room for flexibility depending on what we want to achieve by breaking down the sentence, though, as if our focus is on how the prepositional phrase changes the sentence we might merely leave the grouping at adjective/prepositional phrase, to more clearly separate them (e.g. “I am content [on my own]” vs “I am content [in this room]”). My point being it really depends what we want to explore, I hope that makes sense!

Best,

Phil

I have a question about adjectives and adjective phrases.

Firstly, on the definition of a phrase, one dictionary defined phrase as “A small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit”. However if we apply this definition to certain types of phrases (e.g. noun phrase or adjective phrase), the definition of “a group of words” doesnt seem to fit. What i mean is a noun phrase could contain a noun plus its modifiers (which fits the definition of a “a group of words”, i.e. meaning more than one word), but a noun phrase could also consist of just one noun (i.e. a single word). The same could be said foe adjective phrases, where an adjective phrase could refer to either a single-word adjective or an adjective with modifiers. How does one reconcile this understanding with the definition by the dictionary of a phrase referring to a group of words instead of just one word?

Secondly, adjective phrases are simply phrases with an adjective as the head word (i.e. the main word of focus within the adjective phrase), and that this head word may be accompanied by other modifiers of the head word, such as adverbs, but that collectively, all these words come together to form and adjective phrase which functions in the same way as a single-word adjective (i.e. the adjective phrase serves the same purpose as a single-word adjective in that both are used to modify nouns or pronouns, and can be used in the same position in a sentence, e,g. adjective phrase, like single-word adjectives, can be predicative (coming before the noun it modifies) or attributive (coming after the noun it modifies)). Am I right on this point?

Thirdly, under the following example “I am certain of that”, am I right to say that the adjective phrase is “certain of that”, with the head word being the adjective “certain”, and “of that” being a prepositional phrase which serves as a complement of the the adjective “certain”?

Also, concerning the above, am i right to say that the prepositional phrase “of that”, which serves as a complement of a the adjective “certain”, is in fact modifying the adjective (i.e. is it right to say that such adjective complements perform the role of modifying the adjectives that they complement)?

Other examples i can think of are:
“he was aware of the danger of travelling alone” (i.e. “aware of the danger of travelling alone” is the adjective phrase modifying “he”, with “aware being head word and the prepositional phrase “of the danger of travelling alone” being a complement which modifies “aware”;

“I am perfectly content on my own” (i.e. “perfectly content on my own” being the adjective phrase which modifies “I”, with “content” being the head word of this adjective phrase, and that the head word is being modified by the both the adverb “perfectly” as well as the prepositional phrase “on my own” which serves as a complement to the head word;

“she was terrified of Santa Clause visiting the house”, where “terrified of Santa Clause visiting the house” is the adjective phrase modifying “she”, with “terrified” being the head word of the adjective phrase, and “of Santa Clause visiting the house” being a prepositional phrase which acts as a complement that modifies the adjective “terrified”.

May I know if my above analysis is correct? Thanks!

Regards,
Shizuka

Hi Shizuka,

Thanks for pointing that out – yes, you’re correct, modifies was perhaps not the best choice of word, it is a link to the modifying adjective. I suppose my thinking then was that the verb is what tells us the modification takes place, but you’re right this could be more clearly worded – I have updated the rule to remove confusion about the verb.

Best,

Phil

You mentioned in the article above that “When the verb “to be” modifies the noun before it, an adjective is used after the verb”. This confused me as I thought that “”Adjectives modify nouns”, and that the verb “to be” only functions as a linking verb to link the noun (i.e. subject of sentence) with the predicate adjective that modifies the noun? So why then did you say that the verb “to be” modifies the noun?

Regards,
Shizuka

Hi Vegito,

Yes I can see where this would be confusing – the definitions are fair, and I’d say you’re correct in saying we’re essentially using describe in two different ways here. The simplest way to approach this is to accept that with verbs we’re saying describe in the sense that of ‘denote/express/represent’, while adjectives ‘give more information’, though I wouldn’t say these are exactly different uses; by representing the action, the verbs are essentially giving more information to a sentence. However, as adjectives describe in the purer sense of the word (hence we often call them ‘describing words’ themselves), I would more accurately use one of the words you’ve selected, to say verbs denote, express or represent, and remove this doubt.

Phil