ADJ: adjective
Definition
Adjectives are words that typically modify nouns and specify their properties or attributes. They may also function as predicates, as in Το αυτοκίνητο είναι πράσινο. “The car is green.”
The ADJ tag is intended for ordinary adjectives only. See DET
for determiners and NUM for cardinal numerals.
Αdjectival ordinal numerals that behave like adjectives both morphologically and syntactically (πρώτος, δεύτερος, εξηκοστός) are tagged as adjectives.
Examples
- μεγάλος, “big”
- πράσινος, “green”
- ακατάληπτος, “incomprehensible”
- πρώτος, δεύτερος, τρίτος, “first, second, third”
Nationalities are assigned the tag ADJ, e.g., Έλληνας / Elinas “Greek”, Ευρωπαίος / Evropeos “European”, Ασιάτης/ Asiatis “Asian” etc
Certain words that are assigned the tag NOUN are directly related with adjectives and do not form comparatives (of course, there are adjectives that do not allow for comparatives, such as νεκρός / nekros “dead”):
- Professions such as αστυνομικός / astinomikos “policeman”, στρατιωτικός / stratiotikos “military officer”. When the same words cooccur with another noun, such as αστυνομικός σκύλος / astinomikos skilos “police dog”, they are assigned the tag ADJ.
- ακουστικό / akoustiko “head phone/hearing aid”, κινητό / kinito “mobile phone”, ενδότερα / endotera “inner parts”, πρωϊνό / proino “breakfast”, μεσημεριανό / mesimeriano “lunch”, βραδινό / vradino “dinner”, λαδερά / ladera “vegetable dishes cooked in olive oil”, etc.
Certain proper nouns PROPN are directly related with adjectives:
- Languages, such as ελληνικά / elinika “Greek”, πομακικά / pomakika “Pomak” (and the lemma is ελληνικά.PL etc) are assigned the tag NOUN.
- Names of days such as Τρίτη / Triti “Tuesday
- Public bodies such as Δημόσιο / Dimosio “Public Domain”, Ναυτικό / Naftiko “Navy” etc.
Ancient Greek adverbs that are used as adjectives in EL: νυν / nin “current”, τέως / teos “past”; also, pieces of phrases received from older forms of the language: καθωσπρέπει / kathosprepi “proper” (these are originally two words written as one word nowadays).
Degree of comparison is an inflectional feature of adjectives and some adverbs. EL marks morphologically the positive, comparative and absolute superlative degree. Non-periphrastic comparative and absolute superlative degrees of Greek adjectives are formed with a small set of suffixes or they have irregular forms Degree:
- (regular) ταχύς – ταχύτερος – ταχύτατος / tachis - tachiteros - tachitatos “fast - faster -fastest”
- (regular) ακριβής – ακριβέστερος – ακριβέστατος / akrivis - akrivesteros - akrivestatos “exact - more extact - most exact”
- (irregular) μεγάλος – μεγαλύτερος – μέγιστος / megalos - megaliteros - megistos “big - bigger - biggest”
The comparative (most of the times) and the superlative degree (always) of adjectives is composite:
- Ο Γιάννης είναι πιο ψηλός/ψηλότερος από τον Κώστα / o Gianis ine pio psilos/psiloteros apo ton Kosta “Giannis is taller than Kostas”
- το πιο ψηλό/ψηλότερο παιδί της γειτονιάς / to pio psilo/psilotero pedi tis gitonias “the tallest boy in the neighborhood”
Modern Greek expresses degree modification of adjectives with a variety of morphological (and syntactic) means:
- Diminutives (υποκοριστικά / ipokoristika) productively formed with suffixes such as –ούτσικος / -outsikos, –ούλης / -oulis, like μικρούτσικος / mikroutsikos “smallish”, κιτρινούλης / kitrinoulis “a bit yellow”: they are assigned the lemma of the original adjective and the feature Degree takes the value Dim.
- Augmentatives may be formed with prefixes such as κατά- / kata-, ολό- / olo-, e.g., κατά-μαυρος, ολό-μαυρος / katamavros, olomavros “stark black”: they are assigned the lemma of the original adjective and the feature Degree takes the value Aug.
Participles of verbs in use in Modern Greek ending in -μένος and -θείς are assigned the tag VERB, the lemma ending in -μένος and -θείς and the relevant features Case=…|Gender=…|Number=…VerbForm=Part|Voice=Αct or Pass. Ηowever, there are formations ending in -μένος not related with a verb in use in Modern Greek, e.g. χιλιοτραγουδισμένος / chiliotragoudismenos “storied”, ξακουσμένος / ksakousmenos “famous”, etc; these are assigned the tag ADJ.
Greek adjectives inflect for el-feat/Gender (μεγάλος – μεγάλη – μεγάλο) “big”, el-feat/Number (μεγάλος – μεγάλοι) and el-feat/Case (μεγάλοι – μεγάλων – μεγάλους).
Examples
- μεγάλος / megalos “big”, πράσινος / prasinos “green”, ακατάληπτος / akataliptos “incomprehensible”
- πρώτος / protos “first”, δεύτερος / defteros “second”, τρίτος / tritos “third”
- (it is also assigned the tag DET): ίδιος / idios “same” in Η Ελένη είναι ίδια με την μητέρα της “Eleni has taken after her mother”
References
Κλαίρης, Χρήστος & Γεώργιος Μπαμπινώτης. 2001. Γραμματική της Νέας Ελληνικής Τόμος Γ’. 2η έκδοση. Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα.
Τζάρτζανος, Αχιλλέας, 2002. Νεοελληνική Σύνταξις της Κοινής Δημοτικής. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κυριακίδη. σελ. 225. https://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/modern_greek/tools/lexica/triantafyllides/
ADJ in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [ca] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [eu] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [kk] [kpv] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [vi] [yue] [zh]