What are relational adjectives

In Spanish there are different types of words and one of the most important are adjectives. The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines the adjective as that "kind of word whose elements modify a noun or are predicated of it, and denote qualities, properties and relationships of various kinds". In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to focus on a specific type of adjective and see what are relational adjectives with examples, as well as what are the main characteristics that differentiate a relational adjective from a qualifying adjective.

The dictionary defines the relational adjective (also called "relationship adjective") as that "adjective that specifies the scope or domain that corresponds to the noun which it modifies and which is usually characterized by the formula "belonging to or relating to".

Thus, relational adjectives indicate an existing relationship between them and the noun. In relation to other adjectives, such as qualifiers, relational adjectives present characteristics that distinguish them from the rest:

• Are always placed behind the noun: casual conversation and not * informal conversation, political debate and not * political debate.
• Unlike qualifying adjectives, relational adjectives they do not admit graduation; that is, they cannot appear either in a comparative degree or in a superlative degree: * more economic than political crisis, * more public than private transport, * very economic crisis, * very public transport.
• Some relational adjectives can be preceded by a prefix as "ante-", "pre-" or "anti-": undemocratic ideas, meeting pre-electoral or policeman riot gear.

In this way, we can understand that relational adjectives function as descriptors of a set of properties that are inherent to the noun to which said adjective accompanies. For example, national press, "national" is a relational adjective because it indicates what type of press we are talking about, as well as because, in in this case, "national" can be paraphrased by "belonging to or related to the nation or the scope of one's own country".

Therefore, the relational adjectives accompany and characterize the noun delimiting within a larger set of nouns but never classifying it in different degrees, as qualifying adjectives do. Let's say that relational adjectives are more neutral in character because they specify the typology of the noun, while qualifying adjectives, as their good name suggests, focus more on qualifying the noun. This rating may or may not be objective.

On the other hand, relational adjectives share some characteristic common to other adjectives, for example, agree on gender and number with the noun they accompany: military forces, industrial zone.

Having seen the theory regarding relational adjectives in Spanish, now we will see some examples of relational adjectives through the following list. As we can see, all of them refer to the typology and can be paraphrased by the structure "belonging to or relative to" that indicates that we are facing a relational or related adjective:

• Monthly magazine
• Terrorist attack
• Naval building
• Economic failure
• Parliamentary decision
• Agricultural production
• Academic project
• Military discipline
• Solar energy
• Police control
• Investigation criminal
• Democratic party
• Massive influx
• Youth book
• Baroque novel
• Inca archeology
• German student
• U.S. citizenship
• Constitutional reform
• Real home
• Episcopal palace
• Millennial tradition
• Work trip
• Chemical energy
• Pacifist demonstration
• Student strike
• Alcoholic beverage
• Christmas ornament
• Family food
• Personal problem
• National document
• Anthropological study