in their semantic structure they combine possessive and proper relative meanings. They are formed from the names of people and animals using the suffix (-iy, -ya, -e; -i): enemy - enemy, hunter - hunting, old woman - old woman, fisherman - fisherman, man - human, widow - widow, falcon - falcon, deer - deer, cow - cow, dog - dog, calves - calf.
These adjectives do not express individual characteristics of persons and animals, but their characteristic properties (generic characteristics): hare footprints, bear paw, boar muzzle, cow udder. However, they can denote the properties of a particular person or animal: the Fox disappeared into the tea. Soon, in the bushes, we noticed a fox face, looking at us with curiosity. Along with this, the relative meaning “cooked, made from something” is easily developed in them: a bear's coat, a fox collar, fish oil, etc. Many possessive adjectives in -y also have qualitative meanings: crayfish eyes, law, wolfish appetite, maiden memory, etc.
Another large group of possessive-relative adjectives are formations with the suffix -in(y). The production base for them is only the names of animals. In addition to the possessive meaning, these adjectives also have relative and qualitative meanings: duck soup, chicken broth, donkey stubbornness, cock's enthusiasm, aquiline nose, swan song, etc.

More on the topic § 85. Possessive-relative adjectives:

1. 6.15. Discharges of adjectives by meaning and grammatical properties (qualitative, relative, possessive)
2. 15. History of nominal forms of qualitative and relative adjectives in Old Russian. Possessive adjectives and their history
3. 6.18. Possessive adjectives and features of their formation
4. The theory of relativity confirmed the conclusions of philosophy regarding the existence of a deep connection between space and time

The adjective is an independent part of speech that denotes a sign of the subject that is being discussed in the sentence. adjective answers questions Whose? or Which? For example: red (rose), huge (territory), iron (shovel), mother's (car).

The adjective is associated with the noun, and agrees with it, that is, it changes in cases, gender and numbers. Examples: An interesting story (masculine), an interesting book (feminine). Interesting stories (plural), interesting story (singular).

Qualitative and relative adjectives

Adjectives are divided into two types: qualitative and relative adjectives. Qualitative adjectives always indicate the qualitative characteristics of an object, as well as the attribute that an object may have to a greater or lesser extent. Examples of quality adjectives: tasty, strong, beautiful, small, tall. From such adjectives, we can create a degree of comparison: more delicious, very beautiful, very small.

Relative adjectives indicate the relationship of one thing to another. Relative adjectives very often indicate the material from which an object is made. For example: iron bed, chinaware.

Relative adjectives indicate the state of an object at a particular point in time. For example: winter day, evening sun, morning exercises. In this case, adjectives are formed on the basis of a noun: morning - morning, winter - winter.

Possessive adjectives also belong to the category of relative adjectives. Such adjectives indicate the belonging of one object to another person (or object). For example: sister's brooch, dad's car, bear's lair.

Full and short adjectives

Qualitative adjectives are divided into such subspecies: full and short adjectives. Examples of full adjectives: beautiful, kind, young. From such adjectives, we can create short adjectives by shortening the word, which does not change its essence. Examples: handsome, kind, young.

Full adjectives in a sentence, as a rule, act as a definition. For example: A beautiful house stood on the edge of a forest thicket. Brief qualitative adjectives in a sentence are usually predicates. For example: The breeze is fragrant and fresh.
Relative adjectives are never short.

It should be remembered that short adjectives that belong to the masculine gender, the stem of which ends with a hissing letter, are written in the same way as masculine nouns - without adding a soft sign at the end. For example: skinny, good, fresh, hot.

Renowned linguist Yu.S. Stepanov believed that the difference quality and relative meanings of adjectives is one of the most difficult. This division is carried out not even in all languages. In Russian, secondary school students are already learning to distinguish between these categories of adjectives.

As you probably remember, adjectives answer questions which? which? which? which?

Which? –small yard, school teacher, bear claw.

Which? –wonderful weather, wooden bench, fox face.

Which? –excellent mood, pearl necklace, horse's hoof.

What kind? – polite students, district competitions, bunny ears.

Each row contains examples. qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives. How to distinguish them? As it has already become clear, simply asking a question to an adjective will not give a result, the discharge cannot be determined in this way.

Grammar will come to the rescue semantics(meaning of the word). Consider each category of adjective names by value .

quality adjectives

It is clear from the name that these adjectives mean item quality. What kind of quality could it be? Color(lilac, burgundy, bay, black), the form(rectangular, square), physical characteristics of living beings (fat, healthy, active), temporal and spatial signs (slow, deep), general qualities, inherent in an animated object ( angry, funny, happy) and etc.

Also, most (but not all!) quality adjectives have a range of grammatical features, by which they are quite easy to distinguish from other adjectives. These features may not necessarily be a whole set for each quality adjective, but if you find that at least some sign is suitable for this adjective - in front of you is a quality adjective. So:

1) Qualitative adjectives designate a feature that can appear to a greater or lesser extent. Hence the possibility of forming degrees of comparison.

Thin - thinner - thinnest. Interesting – less interesting – most interesting.

2) form short forms. Long - long, small - small.

3) Compatible with adverbs of measure and degree. Very beautiful, extremely entertaining, completely incomprehensible.

4) From quality adjectives can be formed adverbs in -o (-e) and nouns with abstract suffixes -ost (-is), -out-, -ev-, -in-, -from- :magnificent - magnificent, clear - clarity, blue - blueness, blue - blueness, thick - thickness, beautiful - beauty.

5) It is also possible to form words with diminutive or augmentative suffixes: evil - furious, dirty - dirty, green - green, healthy - hefty.

6) Can have antonyms: large - small, white - black, sharp - dull, stale - fresh.

As you can see, there are many signs, but it is absolutely not necessary to use all of them. Remember that some quality adjectives no degrees of comparison some do not form abstract nouns, some cannot be combined with adverbs of measure and degree, but they fit in other ways.

For example, the adjective bay. This adjective does not fit any grammatical criteria, but denotes color = item quality, means it quality.

or adjective beautiful. Can't say very lovely, but you can form an adverb wonderful. Conclusion: adjective quality.

Relative adjectives

designate sign through relation to the subject. What kind of relationships can these signs be? Material from which the object is made ( iron nail - iron nail, stone cellar - stone cellar, velvet dress - velvet dress); place, time, space (today's scandal - the scandal that happened today; intercity bus - a bus between cities; moscow region - region of moscow); appointment(parent meeting - meeting for parents, children's shop - shop for children) and etc.

Signs et and not temporary, but permanent, that's why all the features inherent in qualitative adjectives do not have relative ones. This means that they do not form degrees of comparison(can't say that this house is wooden and that one is more wooden), incompatible with adverbs of measure and degree(can't say very gold bracelet) etc.

But phrases with relative adjectives can convert, replacing the adjective. For example, villager - villager, milk porridge - porridge with milk, plastic cube - plastic cube.

We hope that it has become clearer to you how to distinguish between qualitative and relative adjectives. And we will talk about possessive adjectives and some traps in the next article.

Good luck in learning Russian!

Do you have any questions? Do you know the difference between qualitative adjectives and relative ones?To get help from a tutor - register

You probably already remember that adjectives are divided into quality(indicate the quality of the item), relative(denoting a sign of an object in relation to another object) and possessive. We will talk about possessive adjectives in more detail.

These adjectives, unlike qualitative and relative ones, do not answer the question what?, but the question whose? They're called possessive because their main purpose is indicate belonging to a person, animal or animate being. Therefore, they are formed only from the names of animals, persons and other animated beings. For example, mutton, fox, Anin, mother's, foremen, grandfather etc. Grammatically, possessive adjectives closer to relative because they have no degrees of comparison(can't be this item is mother's, and that one is even more mother's), short forms they do not form adverbs and abstract nouns etc. However, they have their own characteristics: special suffixes and a special system of declensions.

Possessive adjectives are formed, as mentioned above, from the names of animals, persons and other animated beings using suffixes -ov (-ev), -in (-yn), -y.

Fathers house, elders staff, nanny's scarf, sister's mandate, fox tail.

It should also be noted here that these adjectives have null ending. Try not to confuse, for example, adjectives like blue and wolf.

Blue - a qualitative adjective, non-derivative (not formed from anything), without suffixes, the ending th.

wolf - possessive adjective, derivative (derived from the noun wolf with a suffix -th ), null ending.

Pairs of adjectives such as worker and carpenter, red and bear, distant and shark. Working, red and distant have the endingth, a carpenter, bear and shark have null ending and suffixth, because they are possessive and derivative.

Therefore, it is worth being careful when parsing adjectives by composition and taking into account the category of the adjective by meaning.

Now let's move on to traps which adjectives are preparing for us. Although there is a rather sharp boundary between the categories of ad nouns both grammatically and lexically, however, it happens that some possessive adjectives disguised under qualitative and even relative, and relative under qualitative. All in all, many adjectives want to go into the category of quality ones. How does this happen and how not to get confused when determining the discharge?

Remember that the rank of an adjective by value can only be accurately determined in context, i.e. in a phrase or in a sentence.

For example, cherry compote - cherry compote. Having made the transformation, we understand what is in front of us relative adjectivenoe, because denotes what the compote is made of. But in the phrase cherry suit adjective cherry no longer means that the suit is made of cherries, it means the color of the suit, and color is a quality characteristic, i.e. in this context, the adjective becomes quality.

Let's take a few more examples.

Iron constructor- iron constructor relative adjective)
Iron will- strong will quality adjective)
iron health- good health ( quality adjective)

steel knife- steel knife relative adjective)
Steel color dress (quality adjective)
steel look- unfriendly, cold, hard ( quality adjective)

Bear hair- wool that belongs to a bear ( possessive adjective)
Bear coat at the hostess- fur coat from a bear ( relative adjective)
bear walk- clumsy, awkward, sprawling ( quality adjective)

Fox muzzle- a muzzle that belongs to a fox ( possessive adjective)
fox hat- fox hat relative adjective)
fox cunning- highly developed cunning ( quality adjective)

Thus, we see that the same adjective can take on different meanings. However grammatical characteristics remain unchanged.: neither possessive nor relative adjectives will acquire degrees of comparison, short forms and other distinctive features of quality adjectives.

Let's summarize.

To determine the rank of an adjective, you need:

1) Look, the adjective is used in direct or figurative meaning. If the value is portable, it is quality adjective.

2) If the value is direct, ask two questions: which? whose? If this adjective refers to affiliation, in front of us possessive adjective.

3) Try to substitute adverb of measure and degree (very) or create degrees of comparison. If it worked - adjective quality.

4) try convert combination with an adjective into a prepositional case phrase. Happened - relative adjective.

And remember that the main thing is still lexical meaning, not grammar. Grammar just helps us.

Good luck in learning Russian and excellent grades!

Do you have any questions? Don't know about possessive adjectives?To get help from a tutor, register.

Renowned linguist Yu.S. Stepanov believed that the difference quality and relative meanings of adjectives is one of the most difficult. This division is carried out not even in all languages. In Russian, secondary school students are already learning to distinguish between these categories of adjectives.

As you probably remember, adjectives answer questions which? which? which? which?

Which? –small yard, school teacher, bear claw.

Which? –wonderful weather, wooden bench, fox face.

Which? –excellent mood, pearl necklace, horse's hoof.

What kind? – polite students, district competitions, bunny ears.

Each row contains examples. qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives. How to distinguish them? As it has already become clear, simply asking a question to an adjective will not give a result, the discharge cannot be determined in this way.

Grammar will come to the rescue semantics(meaning of the word). Consider each category of adjective names by value .

quality adjectives

It is clear from the name that these adjectives mean item quality. What kind of quality could it be? Color(lilac, burgundy, bay, black), the form(rectangular, square), physical characteristics of living beings (fat, healthy, active), temporal and spatial signs (slow, deep), general qualities, inherent in an animated object ( angry, funny, happy) and etc.

Also, most (but not all!) quality adjectives have a range of grammatical features, by which they are quite easy to distinguish from other adjectives. These features may not necessarily be a whole set for each quality adjective, but if you find that at least some sign is suitable for this adjective - in front of you is a quality adjective. So:

1) Qualitative adjectives designate a feature that can appear to a greater or lesser extent. Hence the possibility of forming degrees of comparison.

Thin - thinner - thinnest. Interesting – less interesting – most interesting.

2) form short forms. Long - long, small - small.

3) Compatible with adverbs of measure and degree. Very beautiful, extremely entertaining, completely incomprehensible.

4) From quality adjectives can be formed adverbs in -o (-e) and nouns with abstract suffixes -ost (-is), -out-, -ev-, -in-, -from- :magnificent - magnificent, clear - clarity, blue - blueness, blue - blueness, thick - thickness, beautiful - beauty.

5) It is also possible to form words with diminutive or augmentative suffixes: evil - furious, dirty - dirty, green - green, healthy - hefty.

6) Can have antonyms: large - small, white - black, sharp - dull, stale - fresh.

As you can see, there are many signs, but it is absolutely not necessary to use all of them. Remember that some quality adjectives no degrees of comparison some do not form abstract nouns, some cannot be combined with adverbs of measure and degree, but they fit in other ways.

For example, the adjective bay. This adjective does not fit any grammatical criteria, but denotes color = item quality, means it quality.

or adjective beautiful. Can't say very lovely, but you can form an adverb wonderful. Conclusion: adjective quality.

Relative adjectives

designate sign through relation to the subject. What kind of relationships can these signs be? Material from which the object is made ( iron nail - iron nail, stone cellar - stone cellar, velvet dress - velvet dress); place, time, space (today's scandal - the scandal that happened today; intercity bus - a bus between cities; moscow region - region of moscow); appointment(parent meeting - meeting for parents, children's shop - shop for children) and etc.

Signs et and not temporary, but permanent, that's why all the features inherent in qualitative adjectives do not have relative ones. This means that they do not form degrees of comparison(can't say that this house is wooden and that one is more wooden), incompatible with adverbs of measure and degree(can't say very gold bracelet) etc.

But phrases with relative adjectives can convert, replacing the adjective. For example, villager - villager, milk porridge - porridge with milk, plastic cube - plastic cube.

We hope that it has become clearer to you how to distinguish between qualitative and relative adjectives. And we will talk about possessive adjectives and some traps in the next article.

Good luck in learning Russian!

Do you have any questions? Do you know the difference between qualitative adjectives and relative ones?
To get the help of a tutor - register.
The first lesson is free!

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Adjective- this is a class of words that denotes a sign, and this sign is thought in relation to some object. Moreover, this sign can be permanent, passive or temporary, but to all of them you can ask the question “what?”, Which reflects everything in common in semantics. adjective. Because adjective denotes a dependent sign, it has concordant categories of gender, number and case, which are predetermined by the corresponding categories of nouns.
In a sentence adjective acts primarily as an agreed definition.
Depending on the meaning and grammatical form adjectives are divided into quality and relative. They occupy a special place (for more details, see translation agency).

Quality adjectives

Quality adjectives designate a sign that is perceived directly. Quality adjectives have a number of grammatical properties:

have a full and short form;

have degrees of comparison;

from quality adjectives abstract nouns can be formed: "youth";

from the base quality adjectives with the help of subjective assessment suffixes, derivatives can be formed: "red";

to some quality adjective you can choose antonyms: "kind angry".

Relative adjectives designate signs, properties, qualities that are formed indirectly, through a relationship with objects or phenomena. Relative adjectives can only have derived bases. relative adjectives, usually means:

relation to the material, substance: "wooden house";

relation to time: "March day";

relation to place: "Indian costume"

Relative adjectives do not have a short form.
Between quality and relative adjectives no hard border. Relative adjectives often come out in the meaning quality: "iron will". Meaning adjective in such a transition it is metaphorized. Relative adjectives, going into quality, do not acquire qualitative properties, although in literary texts this rule is often violated in order to create more vivid and unusual images.
Quality adjectives can also act in the meaning of relative ones, this usually happens when terminating phrases: "non-ferrous metallurgy".

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives express a sign of belonging to a person or another living being. The foundation possessive adjectives always derivative. Such adjectives with suffixes: -ov- (“grandfathers”), -ev- (“sergeev”), -in- (“daddy's”), -iy- (“bird's”). Possessive adjectives do not have short forms or degrees of comparison. Possessive adjectives very often go to relative and quality, especially with possessive adjectives relating to animals: "wolf's lair" (attractive), "wolf skin" (relative), "wolf's appetite" (qualitative).

Declension of adjectives

adjectives change by gender, number and case, these categories are consonant with the corresponding nouns. Allocate solid ("red"), soft ("blue") and mixed (in back language: "long") declension options adjectives depending on the base.