Download 1B Use of adjectives

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Adjectives
1B: Use of Adjectives
Adjectives can be used in either an attributive sense or a predicative sense.
An attributive adjective presents an attribute of the noun that, from a grammatical point of view, is simply
assumed to be true. For example: if I say, “The purple cow ate the grass,” I merely specify which cow did
the eating, taking it for granted that a cow can be purple. An attributive adjective qualifies its noun directly,
without the intervention of a verb or participle (expressed or implied):
uir bonus
multae puellae
a good man
many girls
All other adjectives are predicate adjectives. Predicate adjectives make some form of assertion concerning
the noun. Common instances of predicate adjectives are:
1) as a complement after a copulative verb (e.g. the verbs to be and to become), expressed or implied:
senex pauper est.
The old man is poor.
2) as a predicate accusative after verbs of calling, naming, making, choosing, appointing, esteeming,
judging, showing:
tē miseram faciō.
I make you wretched.
Nouns also will be used as a predicate accusative in this way:
tē consulem faciō.
I make you consul.
3) in apposition:
Marcus dēfessus humī cecidit.
Marcus sank, exhausted, to the ground.
Marcum uīuum uīdī.
I saw Marcus (while he was still) living.
In the above examples, dēfessus and uīuum are predicate adjectives: in each instance, they add a
further assertion concerning Marcus, the noun that they modify.
Adjectives often will be employed in apposition as predicate nominatives where in English we use
an adverb:
uir miser abit.
The man is departing unhappily (lit. “(being) unhappy”).
Note that, where English employs an adverb to describe the manner in which the action was
performed, Latin prefers to use an adjective to describe the person’s state while performing it.
Nouns will be used in a similar way as predicate accusatives or (as in the example below) as predicate
nominatives:
multa puer didicī.
I learned many things (while I was) a child.