Non-gradable adjectives are those with meanings which cannot be modified by adverbs. Sorry to not have a more easily-understood answer for you!These adverbs could also be used as modifiers for limit adjectives, adding emphasis, but this is extremely rare in modern English:I understood almost everything, however, I'm a bit confused about 'satisfied' due to I read two sentences in Internet which said "very satisfied" and "If you're not completely satisfied, you can get your money back." It was absolutely amazing! E.g.
a nuclear reactor . Take the two antonyms hot and cold. For example, you can’t be ‘1. Non-gradable: extreme adjectives. It might also help to think that 'completely' and 'totally' already express the idea of 'extreme'. (2) Complementary antonyms, which express an either/or relationship: dead or alive, male or female. Please, help me with it! In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship.
From Wikipedia: Gradable antonyms A gradable antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings where the two meanings lie on a continuous spectrum. "Linguists identify three types of antonymy: (1) Gradable antonyms, which operate on a continuum: (very) big, (very) small.Such pairs often occur in binomial phrases with and: (blow) hot and cold, (search) high and low. Thanks. We can look at there, the two sort of modifiers (very and completely) are using the same adjective (satisfied), but these modifiers are used usually with gradable and absolute adjectives respectively. There are a multitude of other adjectives that you place between hot and cold. To show that a person or thing has more or less of a particular quality, we use grading adverbs like ‘Some adjectives describe qualities that are completely present or completely absent. For example, the adjective ‘cold’ has different variations – you can be ‘Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade.
Using ‘quite with both gradable and non gradable adjectives. Another adverb that can be used with both types is ‘quite’ but it’s important to note that the meaning of the adverb actually changes with each type. For example, we can say:Other adjectives like this are full, empty, beautiful, black, delicious, new and possible.Why couldn't we use the other modifiers with the extreme adjectives like (totally/completely)?
For example "I am totally angry"?Certain adjectives can function as both gradable and limit adjectives and can be modified by either type of adverb.
They are 2. Gradable / non-gradable adjectives.
Gradable adjectives are adjectives that can be modified in this manner whereas non-gradable adjectives are the adjectives that cannot be modified. They can’t be stronger or weaker.