pridevnika

Pridevnika is a term used in the grammars of several Slavic languages to denote a word class that describes properties attributed to nouns. Depending on the tradition, pridevnik may refer to adjectives in a broad sense and, in some grammars, to participles as well. The exact scope and boundaries between adjectives and participles vary by language and scholarly approach.

In many descriptions, pridevnik is a class of words that agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case. This agreement allows pridevnik to carry descriptive information such as color, size, or other qualities, and to participate in noun phrases alongside the nouns they modify. In some linguistic traditions, participles are treated as a subtype or closely related form within the pridevnik group, while other grammars keep adjectives and participles as distinct categories with separate rules.

The form pridevnika appears as the genitive singular of pridevnik in inflected languages. This morphological shape is used in various syntactic constructions, including phrases that discuss the value, attribution, or categorization of adjectives, such as discussions of “the meaning of the pridevnika” or “the class of pridevnika,” with exact usage dependent on the language’s case system.

Across languages, the precise definition and boundaries of pridevnik are not uniform. Some grammars emphasize adjectives as the primary function, while others acknowledge participles as an integral, yet sometimes divisive, component of the pridevnika group. This reflects broader differences in how languages classify descriptive words and verb-derived forms.

See also: Adjective, Participle, Linguistic morphology, Slavic philology.