Attributive Adjectives

Attributive Adjectives: how they are different from predicative adjectives

Attributive adjectives precede the noun phrases or nominals they modify.

• These electrons each carry a small adjective (descriptor) electricadjective (classifier) chargenoun phrase head (Blakers 2019)
  
  The noun "charge" is modified by two attributive adjectives. They are attributive because they precede the noun; "small" is a descriptor and "electric" is a classifier.
  The structure of the next sentence is different:

• That’s why recyclingnoun is importantadjective (predicative)
  
  We have one adjective in this sentence, "important" and it does NOT precede a noun. It follows a verb, "is" (a copular verb), but it describes the noun "recycling". So "important" is not attributive; it is a predicativeAn adjective which is used after a verb. Predicative adjectives may be subject predicatives or object predicatives. adjective. In particular, it is a subject predicative because it describes the subject, "recycling". You can see more examples of predicative adjectives on the predicative adjectives page.
  The rest of the examples are all attributive:

• Listening is a differentattributive adjective waynoun phrase head of knowing the world that expands our understanding. (English 2022)
  
  The copular verb "is" is also present in this sentence but the adjective "different" is not predicative; it doesn't modify "Listening". It modifies "way". In fact, "way" is the head noun in a long noun phrase; "a different way of knowing the world that expands our understanding". The head noun "way" is premodified by the attributive adjective "different", and postmodified by a complex prepositional phrase "of knowing the world that expands our understanding".
• Animals leave fossil imprints only under specialattributive adjective circumstancesnoun (Skromne 2022)
  
  The adjective "special" precedes the noun "circumstances". Here, "special" is an attributive adjective. It is also a relational classifier. Note that "fossil" is not an adjective; it is a noun modifying the noun "imprints".
• In fact, it spins in the sameadjective directionnoun phrase head the Earth does. (Laycock 2023)
  The adjective "same" precedes the noun "direction". Here, "same" is an attributive adjective. It is also a relational classifier. Note that "same" may also be considered a semi-determinerA small class of words which act like determiners but whose main function is referential; specifically, anaphoric reference of a noun..

Adjectives which are predominantly attributive

Almost all adjectives can be used either attributively or predicatively but many adjectives ending in -al occur predominantly in the attributive position: annual, equal, final, financial, general, industrial, individual, industrial, international, legal, local, medical, mental, national, natural, normal, official, original, personal, physical, political, professional, sexual, social, special, total, usual.
Only one word is used only attributively: "mere".

• Were the waves realpredicative adjective or mereattributive adjective mathematicalattributive adjective artifacts?noun (Blair, Henriksen, and Hendry 2016)