Adnoun

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Adnoun is a linguistic term used with two different meanings.

Contents

Hyponym of adjective

An adnoun is a kind of lexical category. In English, it is a word that is usually an adjective, but is being used as a noun. [1] [2] The origin of the word is thought to date to around 1763-1792. [2] Often these usages are simply identified as the noun form of the word.[ citation needed ]

Examples:

Synonym of adjective

Adnoun is an alternative term, which is considered to be archaic, for adjective. As John Eliot states in his 1666 Indian Grammar Begun..., "An Adnoun is a part of Speech that attendeth upon a Noun, and signifieth the Qualification thereof."[ citation needed ]

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A noun is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.

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In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which modifies the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", providing extra details about which particular ball is being referred to. Similarly, the adverb "quickly" acts as a modifier in the verb phrase "run quickly". Modification can be considered a high-level domain of the functions of language, on par with predication and reference.

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English orthography sometimes uses the term proper adjective to mean adjectives that take initial capital letters, and common adjective to mean those that do not. For example, a person from India is Indian—Indian is a proper adjective.

A collateral adjective is an adjective that is identified with a particular noun in meaning, but that is not derived from that noun. For example, the word bovine is considered the adjectival equivalent for the noun cattle, but it is derived from a different word, which happens to be the Latin word for "cattle". Similarly, lunar serves as an adjective to describe attributes of the Moon; moon comes from Old English mōna "moon" and lunar from Latin luna "moon". The adjective thermal and the noun heat have a similar semantic relationship. As in these examples, collateral adjectives in English very often derive from the Latin or Greek translations of the corresponding nouns. In some cases both the noun and the adjective are borrowed, but from different languages, such as the noun air and the adjective aerial. The term "collateral" refers to these two sides of the relationship.

A determiner, also called determinative, is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner may indicate whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite element of a class, to a closer or more distant element, to an element belonging to a specified person or thing, to a particular number or quantity, etc. Common kinds of determiners include definite and indefinite articles, demonstratives, possessive determiners, cardinal numerals, quantifiers, distributive determiners, and interrogative determiners.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">English determiners</span> Determiners in the English language

English determiners are words – such as the, a, each, some, which, this, and six – that are most commonly used with nouns to specify their referents. The determiners form a closed lexical category in English.

A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content used where grammar dictates a certain sentence member, e.g., to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English is one.

References

  1. "List of unusual words". The Phrontistery. Archived from the original on 7 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
  2. 1 2 "Adnoun". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2006-10-11.