2.33 adjectives which are of both types

Some adjectives can be either qualitative or classifyingdepending on the meaning that you want to convey. For example, in 'an emotional person', 'emotional' is a qualitative adjective meaning 'feeling or expressing strong emotions', and it has a comparative and superlative and it can be used with submodifiers. Thus, a person can be 'very emotional', 'rather emotional', or 'more emotional' than someone else. However, in 'the emotional needs of children', 'emotional' is a classifying adjective meaning 'relating to a person's emotions', and so it cannot be submodified.

Here is a list of adjectives frequently used both as qualitative adjectives and as classifying adjectives:

• academic, conscious, dry, educational, effective, emotional, extreme, late, modern, moral, objective, ordinary, regular, religious, revolutionary, rural, scientific, secret, similar