Structural Classification of Adjectives

As to the structure of adjectives they fall in English and Ukrainian into three groups:

1. Base (simple) adjectives, which are regular root words (cf. big, bold, clean, high, old, red, thin, young, small, tall, etc. Such base adjectives are few though structurally regular stems in Ukrainian. Cf. винен, годен/згоден, певен, ладен. Regular base adjectives, like those in English, are rather rare a few in Ukrainian. They are: варт, рад, жив (і здоров).

2. Derivative adjectives which are in English regular stems: boy ish, capable, despotic, grammatical, tedious, rural, urban, English, Germanic, beautiful, etc. The Ukrainian language has many derivative adjectives though almost all of them are structurally non-stem adjectives. They are formed with the help of different suffixes, the main of which are as follows: -н-, -езн-, -ськ-/-зьк, -цьк- (товариський, паризький, козацький); -ан-/-ян-, -ов-/-ев, -ев (гречаний, кропив'яний, березовий, грушевий, баєвий); -льн- (доїльний, поїльник); -ч-(виборчий, вір-чий), -езн-, -ач-,- яч-, -ущ-, -ющ-, -уват-, -еньк-, -есеньк-, etc. as: величезний, добрячий, багатющий, синюватий, білястий, гарнесенький, etc.

Derivative adjectives are formed in English with the help of the following suffixes: -al/-ial (annual, bacterial); -able/-ible (capable, sensible); -ary/-ory (contrary, advisory); -an/-ian: (urban, Ukrain-ian); -ant/-ent (defiant, divergent); - ern (eastern, western); -ful (tactful, useful); -ic/-ical (basic, political); -ish (bookish, womanish); - ive (active, conclusive), -less (careless, hopeless); -ous (tedious, poi-sonous); -ow (narrow, yellow); -ward (westward, backward)', -y (milky, tidy).

A considerable number of suffixes, some of which have already been mentioned above, form Ukrainian possessive adjectives from nouns. They are -ів, -їв/-ев-а, -єв-е, -єв-і/: Антонів, Петрів, водіїв, водієва, водієве, водієве;-ин-/-ин-а, -ин-е, -ин-і: Галин, Галина, Галине, Галині; -їн/-їн-а, -їн-е, -їн-і: Надіїн, Надіта, Надіте, Надіті; -ач-/-яч-: мишачий, дитячий: -ськ-/-цьк-: синівський, читацький.

3. Compound adjectives unlike basic and derivative ones are characterised in the contrasted languages by some structural or lexical allomorphisms. Thus, they may sometimes not correlate in English and Ukranian semantically. For example, the English compound adjective breast-high can have in Ukrainian only a phrase equivalent занурений до грудей/що дістає до грудей; ice-cold is холодний як лід/ крига. The English compound adjective upright on the other hand cor-responds to the Ukrainian simple derivative adjective чесний or прямий, вертикальний, which are structurally non-equivalent (they are not compound in Ukrainian). Of course, there exist also many equivalent compound adjectives like four-storied, all-national, all-steel, all-powerful, many-sided, and others which have corresponding semantic and structural equivalents in Ukrainian: чотириповерховий, загальнонародний, and others.

Absolutely allomorphic (for English) is the formation of Ukrainian adjectives with the help of diminutive and augmentative suffixes, the most often used being -еньк-, -есеньк-, -ісіньк-, -юсіньк-(гарненький, малесенький, чистісінький), and -езн-, -енн-, -ач-/-яч-, -ущ-/-ющ- for augmentatives (величезний, добрячий, багатющий), etc.

Absolute isomorphism is observed, however, in the existence of derivative prefixal and suffixal (префіксально-суфіксальних) adjectives in English and Ukrainian. For example: abnormal/subnormal - анормальний/субнормальний.

Very productive in Ukrainian are prepositional by origin prefixes, that partly correspond to English adverbial postpositions, which may also become prefixes (cf. to mention above — above-mentioned, to grow over — overgrown, etc.). These prefixes in Ukrainian are as follows: без- (без думки — бездумний), до- (до центру — доцентровий), etc.

Of allomorphic nature in both contrasted languages are also compound adjectives consisting of the initial adjectival, substantival, numerical, pronominal, or adverbial component and a concluding substantival, verbal or some other root/stem. These adjectives in Ukrainian have always their endings for gender, case and number, whereas in English they are mostly marked by the participial -ing or -ed endings (sometimes by the -ty suffix or without any markers at all), eg: black-maned — чорногривий (чорногрива, чорногриве/-і), easy-going — добродушний (-а: добродушна, -е: добродушне, -і: добро-душні), etc.