In the following sentences the adjectives are printed in italics. Study them carefully and determine which are qualifying and which are limiting adjectives. Note that the possessive nouns and possessive pronouns are not adjectives. Its in the phrases its cruel fangs and its savage claws, is a possessive pronoun, third person singular. In the last sentence beggar's, miser's, and Ingersoll's, are nouns in the possessive form.
- This terrible war in Europe is slaughtering the working-class.
- Gaunt famine follows war.
- A docile, meek, humble, working-class makes war possible.
- The shrieking shell snarls like a living thing; like some wild beast in ferocious glee it thrusts its cruel fangs in earth and rock and rends living flesh with its savage claws.
- Its fetid breath of poison powder scorches in the autumn winds.
- Shattered bones, torn flesh and flowing blood were mingled on the battlefield with broken swords and split rifles.
- The best modern rifles will force a bullet through five human bodies at a range of twelve hundred feet.
- The pitiful dead, slain in war, sleep under the solemn pines, the sad hemlock, the tearful willow and the embracing vines.
- A world without the beggar's outstretched palm, the miser's heartless stony stare, the piteous wail of want, the livid lips of lies, the cruel eyes of scorn, was Ingersoll's vision of the future.
QUALIFYING ADJECTIVES
248. Qualifying adjectives are also called descriptive adjectives because they describe the noun. They answer the questions which and what kind.
You remember we found in the beginning of our study of English, that words were grouped into classes according to the work which they do in the sentence, not according to the form of the word itself. For instance, we have already found that some words, without changing their form, may be used either as a noun or as a verb. Take the word oil, for instance. I may say, I oil the engine. Here I have used the word oil as a verb telling what I do. But I may say, The oil is gone. Here I have used the word oil as a noun, subject of the sentence. The part of speech to which a word belongs in the English language, always depends upon the work which it does in the sentence.
1. So we have nouns which are used as descriptive adjectives, for example the word oil, which we have found we can use either as a noun or a verb, may also be used as an adjective. For example; I may say, the oil tank. Here I have used the word oil as a descriptive adjective modifying the word tank. So also we may say, the oak tree, the stone curb, the earth wall. In these expressions oak, stone and earth are nouns used as descriptive adjectives.
2. We have descriptive adjectives derived from proper nouns, as French, English, American. These are called proper adjectives; and since all proper nouns must begin with a capital letter, these proper adjectives, also, should always begin with a capital letter.
3. We have also descriptive adjectives derived from verbs as active, talkative, movable, desirable, derived by the addition of suffixes to the verbs act, talk, move and desire.
LIMITING ADJECTIVES
249. Limiting adjectives are also divided into classes, the numerals, the demonstratives and the articles.