CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL ADJECTIVES
Of these functions the most central are the attributive function, as modifier in the NG, and the predicative function, as Subject Complement in the clause. It is normal to classify as central those adjectives which fulfil these two functions, and as peripheral those which realize other functions, or only one, or neither of these central functions.
Central adjectives are also descriptors. They add information which fills out and enlivens the description of people, places and things. Central adjectives also play an important role as evaluators, expressing the subjective or objective evaluation of the speaker.
By contrast, the classifiers, degree emphasizers and process-oriented adjectives are all peripheral.
Summarizing, then, we have:
1 Central adjectives: descriptors
2 Predicative adjs only: afraid, asleep, ablaze, adrift, alive, alone, alike, aware, averse
3 Attributive adjs only: these can be grouped into the following types:
• restrictive classifiers: the chief/main reason; sole responsibility; an only child
• time/space: the previous page; my old school; a new baby; your left leg
• associative classifiers: an agricultural college, foreign affairs, a nuclear weapon
• degree emphasizers: sheer nonsense; utter rubbish; an outright lie
• process-oriented: a big eater; a hard worker, a light sleeper, a slow reader
The following excerpt from Paris 1919 illustrates the latter and other uses of the adjective:
Although he (Lloyd George) was a wonderful conversationalist, he was also a very good listener. From the powerful to the humble, from adults to children, everyone who met him was made to feel that he or she had something important to say.
Most peripheral adjectives have a further restriction in that they cannot be graded or intensified: *very main, *extremely chief, *more utter. This also applies to adjectives functioning as classifiers: *a very nuclear weapon, *a rather Egyptian mummy, *fairly prehistoric remains. However, a number of classifying adjectives can also be used as descriptors and graded, some more easily than others: British exports (classifier), a very British attitude (descriptor).
