Editing Adjective (section)

==Restrictiveness==
{{Main|Restrictiveness}}

Attributive adjectives and other noun [[Grammatical modifier|modifiers]] may be used either ''restrictively'' (helping to identify the noun's referent, hence "restricting" its reference) or ''non-restrictively'' (helping to describe a noun). For example:

:"He was a lazy sort, who would avoid a ''difficult task'' and fill his working hours with easy ones."
Here "difficult" is restrictive – it tells which tasks he avoids, distinguishing these from the easy ones: "Only those tasks that are difficult".
:"She had the job of sorting out the mess left by her predecessor, and she performed this ''difficult task'' with great acumen."
Here ''difficult'' is non-restrictive – it is already known which task it was, but the adjective describes it more fully: "The aforementioned task, which (by the way) is difficult."

In some languages, such as [[Spanish language|Spanish]], restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example, in Spanish {{Lang|es|la tarea difícil}} means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task that is difficult" (restrictive), whereas {{Lang|es|la difícil tarea}} means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task, which is difficult" (non-restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives but is marked on [[relative clause]]s (the difference between "the man ''who recognized me'' was there" and "the man, ''who recognized me'', was there" being one of restrictiveness).