adjektivens

Adjektivens is a linguistic term used to refer to adjectives and the adjectival system of a language. It describes how adjectives function to modify nouns or to serve predicatively, and how their form and use are governed by grammar.

Morphology and agreement play a central role in many adjective systems. In some languages adjectives inflect for number, gender, or case to agree with the nouns they modify; in others, adjectives are invariable. Some languages mark definiteness on the adjective when the noun is definite, while others rely on determiners or articles to signal definiteness. Adjective endings or patterns may vary by noun class, producing a range of agreement schemes from simple to highly complex.

Syntax and usage of adjectives typically include attributive and predicative positions. Attributive adjectives occur before or after the noun depending on the language, while predicative adjectives appear with linking verbs. Adjectives participate in degree modification, forming positive, comparative, and superlative forms. These degrees can be expressed with suffixes, internal changes, or periphrastic constructions like more and most, depending on the language.

Typology and variation are prominent in the study of adjektivens. Across languages, there is wide diversity in how adjectives interact with nouns, determiners, numerals, and classifiers, as well as how they encode properties such as definiteness and intensity. This diversity makes the study of adjectives a key area in morphology, syntax, and linguistic typology, informing how descriptions and evaluations are expressed in different linguistic systems.