| 释义 |
adjectival, a. (n.)|ædʒɛkˈtaɪvəl|
[f. L. adjectīv-us: see adjective + -al1. (A modern formation to provide a more distinctly adjective or adjectival form to the word adjective, this having become commonly a n.)]
A. adj.
a. Of or belonging to the adjective.
1797W. Taylor in Month. Rev. XXIV. 558 All the regular inflexions which bestow on it [a noun] a privative, an adjectival, or a verbal form. 1858Marsh Eng. Lang. vi. 135 Our adjectival ending in -ble.
b. = adjective n. 1 b.
1910H. G. Wells New Machiavelli (1911) i. ii. 31 My mother would never learn not to attempt to break him of swearing..refusing to assist him to the adjectival towel he sought. 1932D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase viii. 92 The decease of a damned dago, hr'rm, in an adjectival four-by-three watering-place like Wilvercombe. 1959G. Mitchell Man who grew Tomatoes xiii. 167 Beresford told him to take his adjectival charity elsewhere.
c. Of writing style, etc.: abounding in adjectives, characterized by the free use of adjectives.
1928Sat. Rev. 28 July 127/1 The style is too adjectival. 1965New Statesman 22 Oct. 604/3 The intensely adjectival nature of her writing... Miss Murdoch is the most adjectival novelist ever.
B. as n. An adjective or adjectival form; a phrase, clause, etc. having an adjectival function.
1870J. H. Trumbull Indian Geogr. Names 39 The adjectivals employed in the composition of Algonkin names are very numerous. 1961[see prenominal a. b]. 1964S. Jacobson Adverbial Positions in Eng. ii. 205 No examples are given of..adverbs which are pure modifiers of adverbials, adjectivals, nominals, or functionals. 1972Hartmann & Stork Dict. Lang. & Linguistics 5/1 Adjectival, a name given by some grammarians to a structure which functions as an adjective or modifier,..but which cannot take the normal inflexions of an adjective. |