Set-denoting adjectives, such as aardignice and blauwblue in (25), denote a property of the modified noun (phrase) and have the syntactic property that they can normally be used both attributively and predicatively. In the (a)-examples of (25), for example, the property of being kind is ascribed to (de) jongen(the) boy by means of an attributively and a predicatively used adjective, respectively. The set-denoting adjectives also express a kind-of relation, which can be described informally as “N has the property A”; cf. Section 23.3.2 for a detailed discussion.

Relational adjectives differ from set-denoting adjectives in that they do not denote a property. Nevertheless, they do express a kind-of relation between two separate entities. Normally, these adjectives can only be used attributively. Some typical examples are given in (26).

The kind-of relation expressed in (26a) can be paraphrased as “N is about morphology”, the one in (26b) as “N belongs to the nobility”, the one in (26c) as “N appears every day”, and the one in (26d) as “N is located in the Netherlands”. Note that the adjectives in (26a-d) are all derived from nouns, and this seems indeed to be a characteristic of this type of adjective. Note also that the kind-of relation expressed is often contextually or culturally determined and may require substantial knowledge of the actual world. This will become clear when we look at the examples in (27).

Example (27a) expresses that we are dealing with a lapsus linguae that has some relation to the psychologist Sigmund Freud. The precise interpretation, which in this case is culturally determined, is that it is a slip of the tongue caused by some subconscious mechanism that expresses something about the speakers’s disposition, a subject Freud studied. In the seemingly similar case in (27b), the relationship is quite different: chomskiaanse taalkunde refers to the branch of linguistics developed by (the followers of) the American linguist Noam Chomsky.

Occasionally the relationship is metaphorical. Een vorstelijk salaris in (28a), for example, refers to a very high salary (a salary that would be appropriate for a monarch), and een vaderlijke terechtwijzing in (28b) may refer not to a rebuke from a father, but from someone who behaves like a father. In other cases, like (28c&d), we are dealing with more or less fixed combinations, often belonging to a certain jargon. The relational adjectives are discussed in more detail in Section 23.3.3.

Although the evaluative adjectives attribute a positive or negative value to the modified noun, this is generally not done by virtue of their descriptive content, as in the case of the set-denoting adjectives, but in a more indirect way. Nor do they (synchronically speaking) establish a kind-of relation with another entity. Example (29a) is probably self-explanatory in this respect. Example (29b) shows that evaluative adjectives cannot be used predicatively. The reader is referred to Section 23.3.4 for further discussion.

The three classes discussed in the previous subsections leave us with a residue consisting of adjectives that are often comparable to adverbial phrases. Modal adjectives, for example, resemble modal adverbs in the sense that they express a modal meaning. For instance, the adjective vermeendalleged/supposed in (30a) expresses that the person we are talking about is suspected but not proven to be the culprit, and the adjective potentieelpotential in (30b) expresses that the entity we are talking about may turn out to be a counterexample. Like relational and evaluative adjectives, modal adjectives cannot be used predicatively; cf. Section 23.3.5 for further discussion.