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Noun Premodification with Adjectives and Participles

Understanding noun premodification

Adjectives

Adjectives give us information about the qualities or attributes of something (descriptors See the glossary definition ), for example goodevaluative adjective chance.headword They also act as classifiers See the glossary definition , giving information about a particular group, section, rank, affiliation or subject area to which a noun belongs, for example igneousclassificational adjective (as opposed to sedimentary or metamorphic rocks) rockheadword.

Descriptors

The following are evaluative (poor, important) and size/amount/frequency (regular) descriptors See the glossary definition . They describe, rather than classify.

Mouse over the phrases for more context
Classifiers

The following are topical classifiers See the glossary definition . They define a particular subject area or group. They are restrictive in the sense that they exclude other areas of the head noun. For example medical science restricts the noun "science" to one particular area, that of medicine. 

The following contains a relational classifier, and an affiliative classifier (belonging to a national, ethnic or religious group).

Participles

Participles See the glossary definition have the same function as adjectives and are derived from verbs. There are two forms, the -ing form and the -ed from, for example: manufacturingparticiple adjective from the verb to manufacture processesheadword, relaxedparticiple adjective from the verb to relax stateheadword

-ing participles
-ed participles

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