When can the use of an adjective as subject be justified?
This question was raised by Forum member Justine Aragones regarding this sentence quoting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that appeared in the
Philippine Star early this month: “The record will show that a wrong been committed and maybe corruption.”
In my reply to Justine, I observed that the sentence he presented seems to have been truncated—shortened or cut off—in two parts. The grammatically correct and complete form of that sentence clearly should have been, say, “The record will show that a wrong
had been committed and maybe corruption
, too.” Glaringly absent are the words “had” and “too,” however, and I really couldn’t tell if their disappearance in that sentence was committed by the newspaper or by the speaker being quoted himself. (As it turned out when I later more closely inspected the news clipping provided by Justine, the quoted statement
did carry the word “has” but it was missing in the quote he supplied to me.)
At any rate, none of the circumstances described above indicates an intent of the speaker to use the word “wrong” as an adjective; that word was clearly intended to function as a noun but it just looked and sounded like an adjective because the verbal auxiliary was missing, thus unable to properly form the past or present perfect tense “had (or
has) been committed.” (Since the statement was evidently extemporaneous, however, I didn’t consider it grammatically serious enough to find fault with the English of the speaker or the reporter or the quoter.)
This clarification of the problem brings me back to the more important and more germane grammatical issue raised by Justine in the first place:
Can an adjective be used as a subject—hence as a noun—in a sentence? IMAGE CREDIT: VOCABULARYPAGE.COMThe answer is a categorical yes, of course. An adjective can act as a noun depending on its usage, and as such
it can be a subject, object, or complement in a sentence.
Adjectives preceded by the article “the” function as nouns that are plural in sense. Examples are “the wealthy,” “the ambitious,” “the educated,” and “the beautiful,” as in the following sentences: “
The wealthy wield more power in society.” “
The ambitious are more likely to succeed.” “The professor prefers the company of
the educated.” “
The beautiful invariably seek lucrative careers in fashion and entertainment.”
Certain adjectives that stand for persons can also function as nouns. Examples are “seniors,” “superiors,” “minors,” as in the following sentences: “Many privileges are granted to
seniors in Philippine society.” “New employees observe deference to their
superiors.” “Extremely violent movies are off-limits to
minors.”
Adjectives in the form of ellipses of noun phrases function as nouns. Ellipsis, or the shortening of a noun phrase leaving only the modifying adjective, can turn it into a noun that can can act as subject, object, or complement in a sentence. Take a look at the noun phrases in these sentences: “
The discerning sectors of the population are generally more circumspect and less garrulous than
the uninformed sectors.” (With the noun phrases ellipted: “
The discerning are generally more circumspect and less garrulous than
the uninformed.”) “The refugee camp gave priority to the feeding of
disabled men and
young children.” (With the noun phrases ellipted: “The refugee camp gave priority to the feeding of
the disabled and
the young.”)
Adjectives turned into nouns by conversion can function as common nouns and abstract nouns. Conversion is what happens when a word is used as a different part of speech without introducing any change to the form of the original word. Adjective used as a noun: “
The community elder refused to admit foreign strangers.” Noun used as an adjective: “
The elder matriarch welcomed all without exception.”
(Next:
The sense of “while” eludes not just a few) October 3, 2019
This essay, 1,162nd of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the September 26, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Check out the original post of Forum member Justine Aragones on September 13, 2019 asking this question.Check out my "English Plain and Simple" column answering this question as it appeared in September 26, 2019 issue of The Manila Times.
