It's hard to imagine the Russian language without an adjective. Denoting a sign of an object, this part of speech makes human speech figurative and accurate.
There are three categories of adjectives: qualitative, relative and possessive. Each of these groups has its own characteristics and functions, which we will not dwell on in this article. Let's talk in detail about such a grammatical feature as a form - full or short.
Short forms of adjectives and their features
Actually, the presence of a "truncated" version is that "litmus test" that determines the type of adjective. Possessive and relative do not have this hypostasis. In the form of a non-permanent morphological trait, it is present only in qualitative ones.
Today, the short form of adjectives, although it exists, is becoming less common every year.
Few people know that in the Proto-Slavic language adjectives did not have a complete one at all
shape, it was formed much later. Let us recall examples from oral folk art. Fairy tales, proverbs and sayings give us many such examples: “Mila is not white”, “beautiful girl”, “good fellows”, etc.
The short form of adjectives can be close in lexical meaning to the full one. They differ only in questions and endings. For example: children (what?) obedient (full f.), children (what?) obedient (cr.f.)
But the short form of adjectives sometimes differs from its full equivalent in meaning. Thus, the word "sick" indicates the present, and "sick" indicates a more permanent sign. Sometimes forms of the same word generally have different interpretations.
Compare:
- The weather has been clear for a week now.
- The task became clear after talking with colleagues.
In the second case, we see an obvious metaphor that does not have a direct semantic parallel with the first word. Also, the short form of adjectives may indicate an excessive manifestation of a feature:
- motley (colorful) parrot;
- colorful clothes (very bright, eye-catching).
Some words are generally used only in short form: “glad”, “ready”, “capable” and so on. This is due to the fact that these lexemes have lost their semantic connection with their full counterparts.
Unlike full-form adjectives, short adjectives often specify the sign in connection with the circumstance of their manifestation:
- short haircut (any person can have it);
- pantsshort (to a specific person).
Syntactic role of short adjectives
In the sentence, the "truncated" form acts exclusively as a compound nominal predicate. While full adjectives can be almost any member of a sentence, short ones have only one role:
The oak is mighty (cr.f. - predicate)
A mighty (full f.- definition) oak stands under the window.
A short form of an adjective can carry a verb copula, which most often indicates time:
She was chatty. (past time)
The wall will be strong. (weekday)
As we can see, the role of short adjectives in the language is quite large. Firstly, they can express both lexical shades of the full form, and exist independently, denoting a separate concept. Secondly, the presence or possibility of forming this form indicates that we have a qualitative adjective. Thirdly, the syntactic role of such words is unambiguous - in a sentence they perform the function of a predicate.
