Understanding Verbs and Adjectives: Morphology and Syntax
The Verb
The verb is a word that indicates action and process. The verb form is constituted by the root or stem and inflections or grammatical morphemes. The root is the part that supports the meaning. To locate the root, remove the endings -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive. For example, from cantar (to sing), the root morpheme is cant-.
The endings contain a wealth of information. These inflections indicate:
- Singular or plural number
- Person: first, second, or third
- Tense: present, past, or future
- Mood: indicative, subjunctive, or imperative
- Aspect: perfective or imperfective
- Voice: active or passive
The verb has personal forms related to the three persons of communication (speaker, listener, and subject) and non-personal forms. The non-personal forms are the infinitive (to be), present participle (being), and past participle (been). The personal forms include: I am home, we were in Paris.
According to conjugation, verbs are regular or irregular. Regular verbs use the same lexeme or root throughout the conjugation (e.g., from the infinitive cantar (to sing), we get cantaba, cantará). Irregular verbs use multiple roots in their conjugation (e.g., from decir (to say), we get dije, dirá, decimos).
Syntactically, the verb serves as the core of the verb phrase (VP) and the predicate.
The Adjective
Morphology
The adjective expresses an attribute of the noun it refers to.
Morphologically, it admits inflectional morphemes for grammatical gender and number, and a morpheme for degree.
Gender
Some adjectives mark gender through inflections, using -o for masculine and -a for feminine. Other adjectives do not change and their gender is determined by the noun they modify.
Number
Most adjectives receive the plural inflectional morpheme -s or -es. However, some adjectives have the same form for singular and plural: a unisex garment, two unisex garments.
Degree
In expressing a quality of the noun, the adjective can do so with more or less intensity. This intensity is called the degree of the adjective. There are three degrees:
- Positive degree: expresses the quality without specifying its intensity. Ex: educated
- Comparative degree: compares an attribute with another or with another being. There are three comparisons:
- Superior: better than
- Equality: as equal as
- Inferiority: worse than
Syntax
Syntactically, the adjective is usually accompanied by a noun, which it qualifies or with which it must agree in gender and number. It also combines with adverbs of quantity. Its main function is to modify or supplement the noun.
The adjective is classified according to its meaning contribution to the noun it accompanies:
- Specified: Defines the significant extension of the noun and is usually placed behind it: a blue tie, a few good men.
- Explanatory: Also called epithet. It adds a merely explanatory note without any meaningful delimitation. Designates a quality inherent in the noun, so it is unnecessary. Usually precedes the noun: the white snow, the dark night.