Comparison of Russian and English adjectives Morphological structure

Comparison of Russian and English adjectives

Morphological structure

While comparing the adjectives in Russian and English, the morphological aspect is the most controversial and voluminous. This is due to the fact, that, as it was already mentioned, Russian is a synthetic language, which points to the exceptional role of morphology for its parts of speech. Concerning adjectives, the first thing to mention should be the existence of short and long forms of adjectives (Matushansky, 2006).
Besides some exceptions, all the adjectives in Russian can be used in the both forms, considering that short forms are treated as more formal. The forms are distinguished by certain endings added to the root, but their meaning remains unchanged in both cases (1):
Она умна. – She is smart. (short form)

Она умная. – She is smart. (long form)

Он умён. – He is smart. (short form)
Он умный. – He is smart. (long form)
Оно умно. – It is smart. (short form)
Оно умное. – It is smart. (long form)
Она больна. – She is sick. (short form)
Она больная. – She is sick. (long form)

Он болен. – He is sick. (short form)

Он больной. – He is sick. (long form)
Оно больно. – It is sick. (short form)
Оно больное. – It is sick. (long form)
This property can be to some extent compared to that of English short and long forms, such as (2):
Medic-medical;
Hypothetic-hypothetical;
Idiomatic-idiomatical,
but this only concerns the ic/ical endings. Despite the absence of difference in meaning of the long and short forms of adjectives, there is a difference in therir use. For instance, the short forms can only serve as a predicative adjective, while the long forms can also be used attributively (Levine, 2009).
As it can be seen from the given examples, the masculine gender demands not only adding a certain ending for a short form, but breaking the previous morpheme with an inserted vowel. Therefore, in case one is not sure about how to create a correct short form for masculine adjectives, he or she should better use the long ones.
What is more, attention should be paid to the movable word stress, which is sometimes placed on the initial syllable in masculine and neuter gender. The tendencies of stress change can only be observed in the Russian speaking environment.
It is worth noting that the short forms of adjectives in Russian are unlikely to appear in imperative sentences (3):
Будь сильным, but not: Будь силен (Be strong);
Будь красивым, but not: Будь красив (Be beautiful).
What is more, only long forms of adjectives in Russian can receive case (Matushansky, 2006), which makes this form dominant for most cases of use in a certain context.
Degrees of comparison

Just like in English, qualitative adjectives in Russian have comparative and superlative forms. Their formation pattern for regular adjectives is similar to the one used in English, as far as in Russian there also are suffixes that can be add to denote the comparative and superlative forms, as well as words equal to “more” and “the most”, which can be placed before the adjective

Nominative form Comparative form Superlative form

rich richer richest

богатый богаче/ болеебогатый богатейший/ самыйбогатый

complicated morecomplicated the mostcomplicated

сложный сложнее/ болеесложный сложнейший/ самыйсложный

Thus, the English suffixes –er and –est correspond to such Russian suffixes, as –че, -ще, -же, -ше, еe, and some others, while the words more and most in comparative structures correspond to более and самый. However, in practical use a significant difference between the two languages is that in Russian most of the adjectives can have two variants in the comparative and superlative forms.

Despite the fact that it is also possible for English, it is more typical for this language to apply only one of the form of comparative or superlative degree to a certain adjective.
In addition, it is impossible to use the suffixes for creating comparative and superlative forms of long words such as important, while in Russian the number of syllables does not play any role in the formation of degrees of comparison. This once more points to the absence of strict limitations for morphological forms in synthetic languages.
Interestingly, while the comparative form created by the word более preserves its property of gender, the neighboring form created with the help of a corresponding suffix does will be common for all the three genders (5):
Он более умный. (He is smarter)
Она более умная. (She is smarter)
Оно более умное. (It is smarter);
But:
Он умнее. (He is smarter)
Она умнее. (She is smarter)
Оно умнее. (It is smarter)
Intensifying morphemes

Analyzing the morphological peculiarities of English and Russian, it is impossible to miss such aspect as formation of affectionate diminutive forms of adjectives. This ability, in fact, is most developed in East Slavonic languages, and presents an exclusively wide range of morphemes that can be used with this purpose (Sussex, 2006).

In English the use of diminution is not very spread, which is due to the analytical structure of this language. In fact, the only possible way to make and adjective sound “small” or “cute” is adding the suffix –y, for example as in good-goody. In addition, this suffix does not always denote diminution and can be used with different purposes.
In comparison with English, Russian morphology offers a range of suffixes, which can be add to adjectives in order to achieve a certain stylistic effect. The most spread one is the suffix ньк, which is used to denote the small size of a subject or show affectionate attitude to it (6):
Хороший (good) – хорошенький (good and small)
Зелёный (green) – зелёненький (green in a pleasant way)
Тонкий (thin) – тоненький (exquisitely thin)
Старый (old) – старенький (old and kind)
Холодный (cold) – холодненький (pleasantly cold)
In addition to the mentioned suffix ньк, two more affixes can be added in the former position in order to express tender emotions. Namely, these suffixes include ёх and о (7):
Малый (small) – Малёхонький
Живой (alive) – Живёхонький
Старый (old) – Старёхонький
What is more, it is typical for Russian language to use one and the same adjective twice at one time. In this case, it will constitute one word, which is usually written with a hyphen. This method is used in order to intensify the meaning of an adjective. Interestingly, both regular and diminutive forms of adjectives can be used with this purpose; in case the two forms are combined, the diminutive usually follows the regular form.
Furthermore, the helping prefix пре can be used for the adjective used for the second time. The meaning of this morpheme also can be interpreted as “very”, or “much”, which explains the use of this prefix as a meaning intensifier. In the example below, all the possible variations of this tool will be demonstrated, bearing that each of the words will have the meaning of “very old”(8):
Старый-старый
Старенький-старенький
Старый-старенький
Старый-старёхонький
Старый-престарый
Старенький-престаренький
All the mentioned tools for diminution are not characteristic of English language, which increases the level of complexity of Russian for those studying it as a second language.
The various suffixes and prefixes of different meanings in Russian are replaced by separate additional words like “very” or “rather” in English, which illustrates one of the key differences between the use of adjectives in different stylistic contexts in the two languages.
Besides diminution, different stylistic contexts demand the effect of exaggeration from adjectives, which is also realized in Russian with the help of certain suffixes. To the most often used ones belong the suffixes ущ, ющ, and енн (9):
Большой (big) – большущий
Хитрый (foxy) – хитрющий
Страшный (scary) – страшнющий
Дорогой (expensive) – дорогущий
Широкий (wide) – широченный
Старый (old) – старенный
Богатый (rich) – богатенный
Again, there are no such correspondent affixes in English, where the effect of exaggeration is usually achieved with the help of particles “too” or “very” put before the adjective.
Deriving adverbs

For the adjectives of both Russian and English languages it is typical to form adverbs with the help of certain derivative affixes. This process is usually realized in English language with the help of suffix ly, which corresponds to the Russian suffix o.

However, while the derivation of adverbs in English demands simply adding the suffix, in Russian it is necessary to remove the ending first, and the suffix is added to the bare root. Let us consider some examples (10):
Noun Adverb

quick quickly

быстрый быстро

interesting interestingly

интересный интересно

abrupt abruptly

резкий резко

It is worth denoting that derivation of adverbs is a property of qualitative, and not relational adjectives, in both languages.

Semantics of adjectives

As it is known, according to their meaning, adjectives can be divided into qualitative and relational. The former ones denote a certain quality of the object they modify, while the latter point to the relations between words (Levine, 2009). This subdivision is typical of both English and Russian adjectives, and it determines the meaning of these adjectives.

However, the semantic functions of adjectives in English and in Russian are quite different. For instance, according to (Ikeya, 1995), in English adjectives are “basically a one-place predicate”. This explains the wide use of prepositional phrases which consist of an adjective and a preposition in English. Such phrases do not exist in Russian, where the system of prepositions is poorer and less significant.
For this language it is more characteristic to have the adjectives strictly following or preceding the word they modify. This means the use of both attributive and predicative adjectives, which I also practiced in English. Therefore, some of the following adjective uses can be met in both languages, while the stable prepositional phrases are typical only of English language (11):
It is a typicalmistake. Это типическаяошибка.

This mistake is typical. Эта ошибка типическая.

It is typical ofher to do so. –

This is a goodboy. Это хорошиймальчик.

This boy is good. Этот мальчик хороший/хорош.
It is good forhealth to jog. –

This person is happy. Этот человек счастливый/счастлив.

This is a happy person. Это счастливыйчеловек.

I am happy tohelp you. –

Apart from the semantic functions of adjectives, it is worth mentioning that many adjectives in English and Russian have more than one meaning, which means that they are polysemic. This quality is best realized in certain contextual environments, as far as besides the actual meanings there can be some denotative meanings, derived from certain cultural situations and beliefs.
Obviously, only native speakers are capable of distinguishing the full range of meanings of one adjective, as far as it demands a deep knowledge of the cultural background of the spoken language. Let us consider several examples, which show how the multiple meanings of an adjective can coincide or differ in the two languages (12):
Adjective Meanings

poor

not rich

unhappy

бедный

not rich

unhappy

blue

of the color of the sky

melancholy

conservative (in Politics)

голубой

of the color of the sky

homosexual

wooden

made of wood

awkward in movement

деревянный

made of wood

insensitive

bad oriented in some area

warm

of high temperature

enthusiastic

containing yellow or red color

тёплый

of high temperature

enthusiastic

pleasant

containing yellow or red color

the one that is heated (of a room)

Syntactical peculiarities of adjectives

It is a well-known fact that morphology, semantics, and syntax are tightly connecter to each other, as far as the structure of the word is always interdependent with its meaning and use in sentences. However, while the morphological and semantic features are lying on the surface of a language, the syntactical relations between words demand a much deeper analysis.
From the syntactical point of view, English adjectives are much simpler than the Russian ones. Indeed, an adjective in English does not change its form, regardless of the word it modifies. In contrast to this, Russian adjectives have to agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case (Levine, 2009).
Agreement in gender

Formally, there are three genders in both English and Russian languages; however, in English the property of one of the cases is only expressed by the pronouns he, she, it. The other parts of speech have no morphological features denoting gender. In comparison with English, Russian morphology provides a number of endings available to denote all three genders.

For instance, feminine gender is expressed by the endings –а, –я, -ая, masculine – by the endings –ый, –ий, and neuter gender – with the ending –е. The situation becomes even more complicated considering that in Russian the division into genders is applied more often than in English.
For instance, in English the abstract notions (like happiness, love, feeling), inanimate objects, animals, and many other words are of neuter gender, which determines referring to them as to “it”.
In Russian practically all the notions have a certain gender, and the adjectives need to agree with them, which makes the task of forming a correct phrase of a combination of an adjective and a noun even more difficult. Let us compare some phrases of English and Russian (13):
Hard life (neut) Тяжёлаяжизнь (fem)

Happy puppy (neut) Счастливыйщенок (masc)

Round plate (neut) Круглаятарелка (fem)

Green grass (neut) Зеленаятрава (fem)

Kind boy (masc) Добрыймальчик (masc)

Beautiful girl (fem) Красиваядевочка (fem)

Agreement in number

Besides the property of gender, the adjectives both in Russian can be of singular and plural number. In English this subdivision is implied, but no obvious features of plurality or singularity are present. In Russian, the feature of plurality is expressed by the endings –ые, –ие. Correspondingly, when an adjective modifies a noun or pronoun, it should be of the same number as the word.

Agreement in case

The last important aspect in adjectival agreement with the modified word is the agreement in case. Similarly to the gender and number, English adjectives do not demand this kind of agreement to be realized. In contrast, Russian adjectives have to be of the same case as the words they modify.

As it was mentioned before, Russian language offers seven cases instead those four of English, which means that there are more forms of adjectives, specifically their endings, depending on the case they are used in. What is more, the declension of adjectives is highly dependent on the consonant they are ending in.
For instance, the adjectives with the stems ending in hard, soft, and unpaired consonants will have slight differences in endings changes in the process of declension (Levine, 2007). Let us consider each type separately. An adjective, which has its stem ending in a hard consonant will have the following form of declension (the empty boxes denote the same form as on the left) (14):
Case/Gender Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nominative молодой молодое молодая молодые

Accusative молодого молодой молодыми

Genitive молодого молодой молодых

Prepositive о молодом о молодой о молодых

Dative молодому молодой молодым

Instrumentative молодым молодой молодыми

Locative в молодом в молодой в молодых

The stems ending in a soft consonant will have different forms (15):
Case/Gender Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nominative летний летнее летняя летние

Accusative летним летнюю летних

Genitive летнего летней летних

Prepositive о летнем о летней о летних

Dative летнему летней летними

Instrumentative летним летней летними

Locative в летнем в летней в летних

In case a stem of an adjective ends in an unpaired consonant, the endings in declension will be the following (16):
Case/Gender Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nominative тихий тихое тихая тихие

Accusative тихого тихую тихих

Genitive тихого тихой тихих

Prepositive о тихом о тихой о тихих

Dative тихому тихой тихим

Instrumentative тихим тихой тихими

Locative в тихом в тихой в тихих

: