nounadjectives

Nounadjectives, also called denominal adjectives, are adjectives that originate from nouns and modify another noun. In English they typically appear in attributive position before the head noun, as in stone wall or silk scarf. They can be formed by derivation with affixes such as -en or -y, or by using a noun directly as a modifier (a noun adjunct).

They usually convey material, origin, purpose, or a qualitative property. Examples: stone wall (stone is material), silk scarf (silk material), cotton shirt, coffee mug, glass bottle. They may form open compounds (two words) or become hyphenated or closed compounds: wooden spoon, glass-covered dish, high-tech gadget. Some denominal adjectives are derived forms like wooden, silvery, leathery, sandy, which carry specific shades of meaning.

Semantics and syntax: as modifiers, nounadjectives behave like adjectives and typically do not show noun-like inflection. They can be ambiguous when the head noun could be read as material or as a kind of thing, so collocation and context help clarify meaning. They also illustrate how English often blends noun and adjective functions, producing flexible compound expressions.

Relation to other terms: noun adjuncts refer to the same phenomenon when the modifier is a bare noun used attributively, often without derivational morphology. Denominal adjectives encompass both bare noun modifiers and morphologically derived adjectives that originate from nouns. Cross-linguistic patterns vary, with some languages forming such modifiers as dedicated adjective classes and others relying more on noun-noun compounds.

Overall, nounadjectives are a productive and widespread means by which nouns contribute descriptive function to other nouns, enriching noun phrase meaning with material, origin, or qualitative cues.