Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives are words or phrases that characterize the object denoted by a noun. In English, they generally come before the noun, as in atomic bomb, blue pajamas, clever solution, damnable nuisance, etc. Adjectives that can only be used to pre-modify nouns are called attributive adjectives.

Not all adjectives are attributive. Some may follow the noun and be linked to it via a copular verb - i.e., a verb that establishes the current state of an object or indicates a result of some kind. In this case, the adjective acts as the noun's complement - i.e., as the grammatical unit that completes the noun's meaning. The noun being modified may be either a grammatical subject or object. An example is painful in The treatment was painful. Adjectives acting as a noun's complement and linked to it by a preceding copular verb are called predicative adjectives. Just as there are some adjectives that are only attributive, so too are there some that are only predicative, such as afraid.

Not all adjectives that follow a noun are predicative adjectives. Some may follow a noun without being linked to it by a copular verb. Examples include adjectives ending in the adjective suffixes -able or -ible, such as suitable in the only one suitable for and susceptible in children susceptible to, and adjectives appearing in some fixed phrases such as attorney general and rhyme royal, which are generally of French origin. The plural forms of these phrases are formed by adding the s to the noun, as in attorneys general and rhymes royal.

As implied above, some may be used to either pre- or post-modify nouns. There are many of these, including ones including the adjectival suffix -ful, such as masterful or mournful.

Some dictionaries define adjectival noun to include only noun phrases like those in the examples immediately above, in which the phrase consists of a definite article followed by a word normally used as an adjective. Others define it to include noun phrases in which the initial word is a noun acting as an adjective, as in the examples prior to the ones immediately above, and rarer cases in which the initial word in a fixed noun phrase is an adjective, such as black death and blue-green alga. The broader definition is the one used most often in works about indexing, so it is the one that applies in what follows.

Adverbs are words used to modify adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs. There are many such words, including some very common ones, such as here, there, up, down, etc. In English, most adverbs are formed by adding -ly or ally to an adjective, as in suddenly and automatically, or by adding a suffix to a noun, as in clockwise and eastward.

Because they both are modifiers, adjectives and adverbs present indexers with many of the same problems, which entail many of the same solutions.

Guidelines for using adjectives and adverbs in indexes:

• House style trumps all other guidelines, including those that follow. If you have doubts about what to do, ask your editor.
• Main headings should not consist of an adjective or adverb standing alone, as in these examples:

  common     external tariffs, ...     goods, ...     ion effect, ...

  regular     customers, ...     dividends, ...     gas, ...

  When this is done, the stand-alone term requires an additional line and its subheadings are almost always unrelated to one another. Therefore, use separate entries instead, as in these examples:

  common external tariffs, ... common goods, ... common ion effect, ...

  regular customers, ... regular dividends, ... regular gas, ...

  There are two major exceptions in which adjectives and adverbs may be used as stand-alone main headings: (1) in works about linguistics or in other cases where the terms themselves are the topic addressed in the document, and (2) in cases where an adjective or adverb is used as a title of a book, play, movie, etc. In these cases, the common practice is to enclose the term in quotation marks, to italicize it, or to italicize and qualify it. For example:

  "always", ... "big", ... "bulletproof", ... "notorious", ... "spellbound", ... "suddenly", ...

  always, ... big, ... bulletproof, ... notorious, ... spellbound, ... suddenly, ...

  Always (movie), ... Big (movie), ... Bulletproof (movie), ... Notorious (movie), ... Spellbound (movie), ... Suddenly (movie), ...

• Nouns that are the initial word in adjectival nouns may be used as main headings, with the remaining words being posted as subheadings, as in this example:

  market     letters, ...     planning, ...     research, ...

  But, posting them that way may result in problems. For example: these entries

  price     ceiling, ...     controls, ...     discrimination, ...     elasticity, ...     fixing, ...     floor, ...     forward, ...     supports, ...     wars, ...

  refer to these concepts:

  ceiling prices, ...     floor prices, ...     forward prices, ...     price controls, ...     price discrimination, ...     price elasticity, ...     price fixing, ...     price supports, ...     price wars, ...

  Posting the initial adjective in an adjectival noun as a main heading and the noun it modifies as a subheading obscures the concept denoted by the adjectival noun. It makes the modified noun appear to be a characteristic of a different concept. It also violates a fundamental rule of indexing, which is that separate concepts require separate headings.
• Create a separate entry for each adjectival noun beginning with a noun. Following this guideline ensures that separate concepts are represented by separate headings. For example:

  market     letters, ...     planning, ...     research, ...

  would be replaced by:

  market letters, ... market planning, ... market research, ...

  In the replacement, three concepts are represented by three headings, whereas, in the original, they are represented by four headings. Saving space is not the issue; conceptual clarity is.
• Post collective adjectival nouns as noun phrases in which the article pre-modifies "people". For example:

  the British the rich the young

  becomes   becomes   becomes

  British people, ... rich people, ... young people, ...

  This practice should be applied only when the text refers to all people satisfying the criterion for membership in the class denoted by the collective adjectival noun. For example: the sentence

  The British were not deceived by Rommel's maneuvers.

  does not refer to all British people; it refers to specific units of the British Army in North Africa during the Second World War. Therefore, the collective adjectival noun in the sentence should not be used as an access point for information contained in the sentence. If it were used to point to the sentence, it would be misleading. In addition to promoting specificity in indexing, this practice is also a way to avoid worries about whether initial articles should be ignored or included in headings, whether they should be inverted or not inverted when they are included, and, when they are included and not inverted, whether they should be ignored or acknowledged during alphabetization.
• Post adjectival nouns that are fixed phrases beginning with an adjective as is. For example:

  baptismal names, ... basic training, ... biting louse, ... bitter cress, ... black death, ... blue-green alga, ...

  Adjectives that pre-modify the nouns in fixed phrases should not be posted as subheadings under the nouns.
• Post fixed phrases in which a noun is pre-modified by a present participle or past participle as is. Examples include:

  doubting Thomas killing zones leading ladies missing link praying mantis saving grace swaddling clothes

  accelerated depreciation balanced growth combined joint task force commissioned officers fixed factors shape-charged warheads sustained fire

  Sometimes phrases like these are included in the category of adjectival nouns; sometimes not. In either case, participles that pre-modify the nouns in fixed phrases should not be posted as subheadings under the nouns.
• Generally, adverbs should not appear in headings at all, except in the cases described above in which they may be used as standalone headings, and in cases where the adverb is the first word in a title or set phrase, or the first word in the first line of a poem. Examples of these additional cases include:

  High Fidelity, ... High Noon, ... High Sierra, ... quick assets, ... quick fire, ... quick marches, ... Gently I wave the visible world away, ... Hence vain deluding joyes, ... Insistently through sleep - a tide of voices -, ...

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