Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A word or word group, such as an adjective, that is placed adjacent to the noun it modifies without a linking verb; for example, pale in the pale girl.
- adjective Grammar Of, relating to, or being an attributive, as an adjective.
- adjective Of or having the nature of an attribution or attribute.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to or having the character of attribution: as, the attributive use or relation of certain words; attributive qualities or insignia; an attributive judgment (in logic).
- In grammar, pertaining to or expressing an attribute; used (as a word) in direct description without predication: as, a bad pen, a burning house, a ruined man.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Attributing; pertaining to, expressing, or assigning an attribute; of the nature of an attribute.
- noun (Gram.) A word that denotes an attribute; esp. a modifying word joined to a noun; an adjective or adjective phrase.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective grammar, of a word or phrase Modifying a
noun , while in the same phrase as that noun. - adjective Having the nature of an
attribute . - noun grammar An attributive
word orphrase (see above), contrasted withpredicative .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of adjectives; placed before the nouns they modify
Etymologies
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Examples
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And sentences like 4 are what, following Geach [1960], I'll call attributive uses of “good”, because
Value Theory Schroeder, Mark 2008
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˜Fast™ and ˜big™ are what Geach has called attributive adjectives; ˜brown™ is called a predicative adjective.
Existence Miller, Barry 2002
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The word 'attributive' in logic embraces both the adjective and participle of grammar.
Deductive Logic St. George William Joseph Stock
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attributive: -s/-l directive: -is locative: -eBy renaming the genitive case as "attributive", we make it clearer that these endings are not just restricted to mere "possessives" or "ablatives" but rather we recognize their many other usages.
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attributive: -s/-l directive: -is locative: -eBy renaming the genitive case as "attributive", we make it clearer that these endings are not just restricted to mere "possessives" or "ablatives" but rather we recognize their many other usages.
Archive 2007-10-01 2007
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The survey was actually part of an advertising for a medical professional headhunter service, and was neither scientific, nor attributive.
r_urell: So, predictably, healthcare reform domin r_urell 2010
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A sublime poet, his literary output is as long as it is impressive and includes: Jaap Sahib, invoking the many attributive names of the Divine; Sawaiyyas (quatrains); Akal Ustat (Lauding the Timeless); Chandi Ki Var, a ballad depicting the eternal contest between good and evil; and Zafarnama (Epistle of Victory), a defiant letter to the Mughal Emperor.
Ravinder Singh Taneja: The Incomparable Guru Gobind Singh Ravinder Singh Taneja 2012
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I used an attributive, not a predicative adjective.
The Volokh Conspiracy » “We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It” 2010
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To shift the discussion just a bit, whether or not we say present participles and gerunds should be differentiated as distinct parts of speech, it still seems to me that except for in cases of a present participle in the slot of attributive adjective (ex/The steering wheel of my car is blue) gerunds and present participles take objects (I like driving my car).
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The survey was actually part of an advertising for a medical professional headhunter service, and was neither scientific, nor attributive.
March 28th, 2010 r_urell 2010
heypacksees commented on the word attributive
noun as adjective (cf. gerund, participle)
May 28, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word attributive
"In grammar, pertaining to or expressing an attribute; used (as a word) in direct description without predication: as, a bad pen, a burning house, a ruined man."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
March 1, 2018