Although the authors were widely separated in geographical terms, they kept in close and detailed contact throughout the project by electronic mail and other means. The work of the international team was thus well balanced and integrated in terms of the spread of effort between North America and Europe. | Semantic grouping of adjectives 509 Size quantity extent denoting size weight extent big deep heavy huge long large little short small thin wide Time denoting chronology age frequency annual daily early late new old recent young Evaluative emotive denoting judgements affect emphasis bad beautiful best fine good great lovely nice poor Miscellaneous descriptive appropriate cold complex dead empty free hard hot open positive practical private serious strange strong sudden. B Classifiers Relational classificational restrictive delimiting the referent of a noun particularly in relation to other referents additional average chief complete different direct entire external final following general initial internal left main maximum necessary original particular previous primary public similar single standard top various same note same can alternatively be analyzed as a semi-determiner Affiliative designating the national or religious group to which a referent belongs American Chinese Christian English French German Irish United Topical other . giving the subject area or showing a relationship with a noun chemical commercial environmental human industrial legal medical mental official oral phonetic political sexual social ventral visual. Some adjectives can serve as either classifier or descriptor. Below the expressions in the left-hand column contain a classifying or restricting adjective while those in the right-hand column a descriptor. Note that the descriptors are gradable and can be modified to show degree or extent . by very . Classifier modem algebra criminal law a secondary school Descriptor some modern authorities criminal activity a useful secondary function In the discussions of attributive adjectives to follow semantic groupings of adjectives are employed as a heuristic to help characterize the patterns across registers. However very common adjectives typically designate a range of meanings. For example in some expressions old is descriptive denoting
