Talk:copper

Adjective?

When considering whether a noun modifier is itself a noun or, instead, an adjective, consider:

1. Is is gradeable? Generally adjectives are and nouns aren't.
2. Can it be used both attributively and predictively after a variety of linking verbs (e.g., 'be', 'seem', 'become'). Most adjectives will fit in both slots, while nouns will often require a determiner as predicates, if they fit at all.
3. Does it take modification by adverbs or adjectives. Adjectives will take adverbial modification and nouns will not.
4. Can it be modified by 'very'?
5. What affixes will it accept? -ly generally goes with adjectives, -y with nouns, but there are many others to consider.

Results are not conclusive, but in general, I believe they support the analysis of 'copper', not to mention 'wood', 'paper', and other materials, as nouns and not adjectives. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English supports this conclusion.--Brett 17:42, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I admittedly don't know as much as I could about parts of speech, so I look at what the general consensus seems to be by looking at what other dictionaries do. Some places do list it as an adjective: [1] [2] [3]. But it seems that for every page that does, there are 2 that don't. I don't know what we do in a situation like that.

For my own curiousity and because I'm not sure I was ever taught it, what part of speech would "copper" be in the sentence "Look at the copper statue" or "plastic" in "I have a plastic bag"? I guess I'm confused by it because they are certainly modifying a noun. I didn't know nouns could modify other nouns. - Tygartl1 ^-talk- 18:29, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Many people have never thought about it, and that's mostly the fault of the popular definition of adjective that basically says anything that modifies a noun is an adjective. It's more consistent to accept that adjectives have other properties (such as those listed above). Also, it would be rather profligate to list all nouns as adjectives. Yet pick any noun at random and you can stick it in front of another: furniture store, faculty room, book bag, water bottle, government bureaucracy, word nerd... the list is infinite. You can even do it with proper nouns: Canada day, the Washington monument, Bush logic. So rather than calling all of these adjectives, lets say that one of the properties of nouns in general is that they modify other nouns.--Brett 22:06, 6 December 2007 (UTC)