adjectivessuch

Adjectivessuch is a coined label in linguistics for a class of adjectives that commonly occur in English such constructions with such. The term is not widely standardized; it is used to highlight a pattern in which an adjective participates in a nominal phrase that is intensified by such, as in such a tall building, such incredible speed, or such difficult questions.

These adjectives are typically evaluative or qualitative, contributing subjective or affective meaning that goes beyond the noun itself. They often appear in pre-nominal position with or without an explicit determiner, and they interact with the determiner a or the to in different registers. The same adjective can participate in such constructions across various nouns, showing flexible distribution.

The such-phrase acts as a degree or intensifier that foregrounds the referent as especially notable in some respect. Adjectivessuch adjectives can carry strong gradability and can affect the overall emphasis and sentiment of the noun phrase. Their interpretation can depend on context, with differences observed in formality, register, and syntactic alternations such as singular versus plural or with and without articles.

Status and criticism: The term is primarily a descriptive label used by some researchers; it is not a widely accepted syntactic category in standard grammar. Because many adjectives can pattern with such constructions, the taxonomy can be unstable and may reflect idiolectal or corpus-specific patterns rather than a universally defined class.

See also: intensifier, determiner, degree modification, English adjectives.