Student’s Performance in Using Adjectives

In English, adjectives are syntactic or lexical category that function as the head of the adjective phrase and have the semantic value of qualifying or describing(Fromkin et al, 2003:573). Greenbaum and Quirk (1992:129)assert that adjectives have four major characteristics: a. They can freely occur in attributive function, i.e., they can premodify a noun by appearing between a determiner and the head word of the noun phrase. For example: 1. An ugly painting,(ibid) b. They can freely occur in predicative function, i.e., they can work as a subject complement: 2. The painting is ugly. (ibid) c. They can be premodifyed by the intensifier very: 3. The children are very happy. (ibid) d. They can take the comparative and the superlative forms (-er and -est)or (more and most). 4. My children are the( happi/er/est) now. 5. The students are more intelligent 6. The students are the most intelligent. However, it is assumed that Iraqi students of English often face difficulties in using English adjectives, particularly, a group of adjectives are considered confusing to learners by L.G. Alexander (1994) Right Word Wrong Word and consequently, may be misused by Iraqi students. These adjectives are considered confusing, in the sense that some adjectives may appear similar in meaning (like big, great, or huge) or in form(like historic, historical, classic, classical) but they are different in use, due to meaning differences. The paper will attempt to provide a list of these adjectives (adopted from – L. G. Alexander, 1994 Right Word Wrong Word). Then, a special test is designed and applied on Iraqi students of English to measure the extent of errors committed within this area in order to be analysed separately, ie, to show the progress for each of the two levels(2nd year and 4th year) involved in the test . Finally, the paper will provide a group of recommendations in the light of the results arrived at.