Adjectives can be formed in few ways:
- Nouns (city bus) can be adjectives.
- Adjectives can be derived from noun (music –> musical).
- Adjectives can be derived from verb (attract –> attractive).
- Adjectives can be non-derived (happy).
This post covers adjectives that are derived from noun (#2).
What is denominal adjective?
Denominal means derived from noun.
Denominal adjectives are adjectives derived from nouns usually by adding suffix. Examples:
beauty –> beautiful, peace –> peaceful, power –> powerful, success –> successful, youth –> youthful [-ful]
music –> musical, nation –> national, nature –> natural [-al]
child –> childish, fool –> foolish [-ish]
caution –> cautious, danger –> dangerous, fame –> famous, glory –> glorious [-ous]
friend –> friendly [-ly]
health –> healthy, grease –> greasy, noise –> noisy, sand –> sandy [-y]
care –> careless, end –> endless, fear –> fearless, hope –> hopeless, time –> timeless [-less]
circle –> circular, sun –> solar [-ar]
art –> artistic, hero –> heroic, irony –> ironic [-ic]
America –> American, India –> Indian [-an. Since the adjectives here have been derived from proper nouns, they’re called proper adjectives. Proper adjectives then are a subset of denominal adjectives.]
gold –> golden, wood –> wooden [-en]
culture –> cultured, talent –> talented [-ed]
(Note: Adjectives can be derived from verbs as well. They’re called deverbal adjective.)
Nominal vs. denominal adjective
A noun functioning as adjective is called nominal adjective. Examples: rescue dog, school bus, science project, and silk scarf.
An adjective derived from noun is called denominal adjective. Examples: national anthem, powerful speech, childish behavior, and heroic action.
Nominal adjectives are peripheral adjectives since they can only be attributive. Denominal adjectives, in contrast, are mostly central since they’re both attributive and predicative. (An adjective is central if it can occupy both attributive and predicative position. It is peripheral if it can occupy only one of the two. Learn more: central vs. peripheral adjective.)
