Relative adjectives - ample opportunities for humorists and jokers

Adjectives are divided into three categories: qualitative, possessive and relative. All of them fulfill the role of the definition in the sentence. Also, they have non-permanent signs, which are necessarily indicated in the morphological analysis: number, gender and case.

The material of manufacture, spatial or temporal characteristics, the relation to any community is denoted by relative adjectives. Examples: banana paradise (material), south-west wind (space), yesterday's bread (time), folk voice (community).

These characteristics are not considered from a quantitative point of view, therefore, they do not have the degrees of comparison. There can not be a banana palm "bananove" or, especially, "very banana" or "most banana"!

Relative adjectives from nouns are formed. For example: pistachios - pistachio, oilcloth - oilcloth, autumn - autumn, one hand - one-armed. But sometimes in the process of substantivization they become nouns: military man - military man, Russian man - Russian, bathroom - bathroom, children's room - children's room. However, in this case too, they tend to adhere to the principle of adjectives.

It should be noted that relative forms of relative adjectives can not form a brief form. "Wooden" from "wooden", "plums" from "plum", "rustic" from "rustic" - these words can exist only in the speech of a joker who decides to "play" with his tongue, distorting it.

Do not combine relative adjectives with adverbs, including the word "very". Everyone will agree that the phrases "very pistachio", "very doggy" or "too windowed" sound ridiculous and even funny.

Today, many humorists successfully "beat" these features of Russian speech, inventing phrases like: "No, my fate - you will be more useful than yours!" Or "Well, very Russian man! Russe is the most Russian of all! "

Another distinguishing feature of relative adjectives is the absence of antonyms. And what antonyms (words with the opposite meaning) can be in the words "cat" or "table", "electric" or "January"?

If someone selects the adjective "cat's" antonym "doggy", then it can be counted only for a fun, but unsuccessful joke. After all, both dogs and cats are simply animals, which sometimes, sometimes, quarrel. But their quarrels are not at all a law, therefore it is impossible to name these adjectives antonyms. It is also impossible to define the "January" antonym "June" or "May" for the adjective, it is also foolish to try to name the words "wooden" and "iron" as antonyms.

It should be noted such a feature of the Russian language, as the mobility of the boundaries between lexico-grammatical categories of adjectives. That is, relative adjectives can in a certain context be transformed into possessive or qualitative.

An example is the word "doggy". In combination with the noun of the "pack" it remains in the category of relative adjectives, with the word "ears" already becoming a possessive, and the phrase "dog life" is the best indication of the quality of this life itself ...

Here are the main distinguishing features of this category of adjectives.