Premodifying: classifying and evaluating
Adjectives of classification (i.e. those which refer to the type or category of something, e.g. chemical, Asian, metallic, conical, prehistoric) and noun phrase premodifiers are frequent, especially in scientific and technical writing. Unlike in informal conversational language, several premodifiers often occur, combining both adjectives and noun phrase modifiers. In the examples, noun phrases are in green, premodifiers are in bold type:
[fluid mechanics text]
The effect of bottom scattering on swell propagation is illustrated with numerical model computations for the North Carolina continental shelf using high-resolution bathymetry and an efficient semi-implicit scheme to evaluate the bottom scattering source term and integrate the energy balance equation.
[about C.P. Scott, Editor of the Manchester Guardian newspaper]
At the same time, Scott rejected the prevailing contemporary notion that the press should merely ‘represent’ the readers’ interests.Thornes & Shao (1991b) tested the sensitivity of individual meteorological parameters in a road weather information system by using a range of input values.
Evaluative adjectives (those which give subjective judgements, such as interesting, ground-breaking, misguided, excellent, etc.) are more frequent in humanities subjects, where opinion and personal stance are often foregrounded. Such adjectives are normally gradable and may be premodified by adverbs of degree:
The literature of writers, like other ethnic literatures, examines in very commanding and provocative ways the construction of identity in the American context. Latina In the familiar territory of women’s work, oral histories of societies at war have opened up a far more fragmented past experience than the narrative of social progress might suggest.