+49. Constructions of Adjectives.+—Adjectives that merely describe or limit are said to be attributive in construction. When the adjective limits or describes, and, at the same time, adds to the predicate, it is called a predicate adjective.Predicate adjectives may be used either as attribute or objective complements: [The sea is rough to-day (attribute complement), He painted the boat green (objective complement)].
+50. Equivalents for Adjectives.+—The following are used as equivalents for the typical adjective:—
1. A noun used in apposition: [Barrie's story of his mother, "Margaret Ogilvy," is very beautiful].
2. A noun used as an adjective: [A campaign song].
3. A prepositional phrase: [His little, nameless, unremember'd acts of kindness and of love].
4. Participles or participial phrases: [We saw a brook running between the alders. Soldiers hired to serve a foreign country are called mercenaries].
5. Relative clauses: [This is the house that Jack built].
6. An adverb (sometimes called the locative adjective): [The book here is the one I want].
VERBS
+51. Uses of Verbs.+—A verb is the word or word-group that makes an assertion or statement, and it is therefore the most important part of the whole sentence. It has been already shown that such a verb as speaks serves the double purpose of suggesting an activity and showing relation. The most purely relational verb is the verb to be, which is called the copula or linking verb, for the very reason that it joins predicate words to the subject: [The lake is beautiful]. To be, however, is not always a pure copula. In such a sentence as, "He that cometh to God must believe that He is," the word is means exists.Verbs that are like the copula, such as, appear, become, seem, etc., are called copulative verbs. Verbs that not only are relational but have descriptive power, such as sings, plays, runs, etc., are called attributive verbs. They attribute some quality or characteristic to the subject.