Would a Notional Definition Be Useful to Classify Verbs? Why (not)?

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Solution on Exercise 2

It is true that whenever you want to create an adverb from an adjective just by adding the suffix “-ly” it is enough. For example, when something is very easy and you want to say that you can do it in a easy way (so you need an adverb) just add “-ly” and you will find what you were looking for.

- This has an easy solution. → I can easily fix it.

But what if the sentence change and we have:

- She has a lovely voice.

The word lovely must be classified as an adjective although it has a typical adverb ending (-ly) because adjectives are used to modify nouns and in this case, lovely is doing it; it means that her voice is nice and beautiful.

What’s more, adjectives can become comparative and superlative. The comparative form will indicate that something will be more X than something else. The superlative form will indicate that something cannot be extended.

So, if lovely wasn’t an adjective, this world cannot become a comparative or a superlative, and in fact, it can (just remember to change the Y for an I):

- Lovely – lovelier – loveliest.

There are some adjectives which follow a different rule. Since they are longer (they have two syllables or more) they take analytical comparative and superlative form. For example:

- Beautiful – More beautiful than – The most beautiful.

And there are also some exceptions too which do not follow any of the previous rules. For example:

- Good – Better than – The best.

Another argument to give evidence it that, not always but mainly, an adjective in English is placed before the noun. For example:

- The red car.

Sometimes it follows the other structure which is quite similar to the other well-known languages such as Spanish, Italian or French.

- The car is red.

There are more affixes that you can add to nouns which are:

- “-ful” → Beauty – Beautiful.

- “-less” → Use – Useless

- “-ive” → Imagination – Imaginative.

- “Un-” → Happy – Unhappy.

And there are adjectives which don’t need any affix, for example, colors.

Once I have given enough evidence to prove that lovely is an adjective in this sentence, I will provide 5 more examples of words ending in –ly and I will say whether it is an adjective or an adverb and why.

- The dog is eating hungrily → in this case the right option is hungrily because it explains the situation; it explains how the dog is doing the action of eating and it is in a hungry way.

- I am a lonely boy. → It is an adjective because it is describing how I am. In this case, it means that I am alone.

- Is she drinking the hot coffee slowly? → In this case it is also an adverb because it is asking for information of the situation too; it is asking if she is drinking the hot coffee in a slow way.

- This mobile phone is easy-friendly. → This compound word is created by two adjectives that explain how the electronic equipment is.

- The old lady spoke softly. → In this case an adverb is used because it is describing how the old lady spoke, she has a soft spoke. In case that the bold word describes the old lady it may have been and adjective and not an adverb.

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Conclusion

This project has helped me a lot in many different ways; I never thought that placing a word in a sentece woudl be so difficult, in fact, there are a lot of activities that we do in our daily life which are easy (adjective) but once you study them they are harder (comparative adjective), for instance.

It has also help me on how to deal with explaining difficult items which were never supose to be explained as an English teacher and giving evidence to prove it is okay.

What’s more, the idea of doing an exercise for university is different from what I am used to. Usually, High School exercises used to be easier and quicker (again using a comparative adjective) but now you need to do it slowly (adverb) and paying attention.

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Bibliography and webgraphy

- Aarts, B. (1997) English Syntax and Argumentation, London: MacMillan Press.

- https://cv2008.uab.cat/espais/036035/material/

- http://www.uab.cat/web/la-docencia-de-grau-1248934869961.html

- http://www.uab.cat/doc/DOC_Style_Sheet_2013_14_ca

- http://www.wordreference.com/definition/word

- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

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