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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

NOUN AS ADJECTIVE

ALL THE AFRICAN COUNTRIES WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES, in the above sentence the word AFRICAN is used as adjective, is it correct??
  

Top answer

Hi, Yes. It's fine. Please type in lower-case.

— Clive

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8 Answers
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Hi,

Yes. It's fine.

Please type in lower-case.

Clive
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Anonymousin the above sentence the word AFRICAN is used as adjective, is it correct??
It is not merely "used as" an adjective; it is an adjective.
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Perhaps the OP means the adjective "African" as opposed to the noun "African" meaning a person from Africa.

BillJ
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BillJPerhaps the OP means the adjective "African" as opposed to the noun "African" meaning a person from Africa.BillJ
I also thought that might be the case, but which category has priority when it comes to these nationality words? I thought you objected in a previous post to the same word being classified in one category in one sentence while categorizing it
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I suppose it does cause confusion when the inhabitant noun is homonymous with the adjective. Nevertheless, the two uses of "African" are quite distinct and well-established: I like African music (adjective), She is an African from Jo'Burg (noun). Hence it has dual-classification and belongs in both the adjective and noun classes.

BillJ
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BillJ it has dual-classification and belongs in both the adjective and noun classes.
Oh, OK. But as I understand it, that's somewhat unusual.

I take it that because you stress analyzing only the surface structure you don't really advise use of the concept of "promoting an adjective to noun status", thus, "An African" = "An African
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Many countries have different words for their inhabitants and a 'relating to' derivative. Denmark, for example, has the noun "Dane" for an inhabitant, from which the adjective "Danish" comes. Finland has the noun "Finn" for an inhabitant, from which the adjective "Finnish" comes. And "Turkey" has the noun "Turk" for an inhabitant, from which the adjective "Turkish" comes. There are many more.
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BillJMany countries have different words for their inhabitants and a 'relating to' derivative. ... having established that there is nothing wrong in principle with having ..., it follows that where the noun and adjective just happen to be homonymous, ... good sense to be consistent and consider them as also belonging to the distinct classes (parts of speech) of both noun
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