Attributive Adjectives

Attributive Adjectives: how they are different from predicative adjectives

Attributive adjectives precede the noun phrases or nominals they modify.

• These electrons each carry a small electric charge (Blakers 2019)
  
  The noun "charge" is modified by two attributive adjectives. They are attributive because they precede the noun; "small" is a descriptor and "electric" is a classifier.
  The structure of the next sentence is different:

• That’s why recycling is important
  
  We have one adjective in this sentence, "important" and it does NOT precede a noun. It follows a verb, "is" (a copular verb), but it describes the noun "recycling". So "important" is not attributive; it is a predicative adjective. In particular, it is a subject predicative because it describes the subject, "recycling". You can see more examples of predicative adjectives on the predicative adjectives page.
  The rest of the examples are all attributive:

• Listening is a different way of knowing the world that expands our understanding. (English 2022)
  
  The copular verb "is" is also present in this sentence but the adjective "different" is not predicative; it doesn't modify "Listening". It modifies "way". In fact, "way" is the head noun in a long noun phrase; "a different way of knowing the world that expands our understanding". The head noun "way" is premodified by the attributive adjective "different", and postmodified by a complex prepositional phrase "of knowing the world that expands our understanding".
• Animals leave fossil imprints only under special circumstances (Skromne 2022)
  
  The adjective "special" precedes the noun "circumstances". Here, "special" is an attributive adjective. It is also a relational classifier. Note that "fossil" is not an adjective; it is a noun modifying the noun "imprints".
• In fact, it spins in the same direction the Earth does. (Laycock 2023)
  The adjective "same" precedes the noun "direction". Here, "same" is an attributive adjective. It is also a relational classifier. Note that "same" may also be considered a semi-determiner.

Adjectives which are predominantly attributive

Almost all adjectives can be used either attributively or predicatively but many adjectives ending in -al occur predominantly in the attributive position: annual, equal, final, financial, general, industrial, individual, industrial, international, legal, local, medical, mental, national, natural, normal, official, original, personal, physical, political, professional, sexual, social, special, total, usual.
Only one word is used only attributively: "mere".

• Were the waves real or mere mathematical artifacts? (Blair, Henriksen, and Hendry 2016)