adjektiivisu

Adjektiivisuus, often translated as adjectivity, is a linguistic term that describes how adjectives behave in a language. It covers which properties adjectives represent, how they relate to the nouns they modify, and how their form and position interact with grammar.

Morphology plays a central role in adjectivity. In many languages adjectives inflect for gender, number, and sometimes case to agree with the nouns they modify; others keep adjectives in a fixed form and rely on the noun to carry the grammatical information. Adjectives also participate in degree construction, forming positive, comparative, and superlative forms through inflection or periphrastic constructions (such as more/most).

Syntactic distribution is another key aspect. Adjectives commonly function as modifiers, appearing attributively before a noun (the red apple) or predicatively after linking verbs (the apple is red). Some languages allow both orders, while others restrict one. The placement and agreement of adjectives often interact with determiners, numerals, and other modifiers in a sentence.

Semantics and gradability are also central to adjectivity. Adjectives express properties such as color, size, or quality and can be gradable, taking intensifiers (very tall). They can have attested semantic distinctions between attributive and predicative use, and in some languages, certain adjectives may participate in light vs. heavy qualitative distinctions.

Typology and cross-language variation are prominent. Many languages show some agreement between adjectives and nouns in gender or number, and sometimes in case or definiteness. English has little formal agreement, while languages such as Spanish or French exhibit gender and number agreement; Finnish marks adjectives for number and case to align with nouns.