Meaning & use
presentive
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nountechnicalrare
(of a word) carrying meaning on its own rather than only showing a grammatical link.
Grammar: Used mainly before a noun, as in 'a presentive word'; it is not usually put after a linking verb.
Patterns
- a presentive word
- presentive elements in a sentence
In his grammar, nouns and verbs are called presentive words because they name things and actions.
The author contrasts presentive words with words that merely join or point.
Common combinations
- presentive word
- Old grammars classed 'horse' and 'run' as presentive words.
- presentive element
- The sentence has two presentive elements and one linking word.
- purely presentive
- A name like 'London' is purely presentive in this old analysis.
Synonyms and how they differ
- content
- The modern everyday term; 'content word' is far more common than 'presentive word' today.
- lexical
- Used in linguistics for words with full meaning, and it is the standard choice in current academic writing.
- notional
- An older label with a similar idea, though it stresses the concept a word expresses rather than its meaning-bearing role.
Opposites
Word family
- present verb
- to show or give something, or to put something forward for attention.
- presentation noun
- the act of showing or explaining something to an audience.
Commonly confused: presentive or preventive? presentive or preservative?
presentive vs preventive
Sounds similar but means 'meant to stop something from happening', as in 'preventive medicine'.
presentive vs preservative
Also similar in sound; it means a substance that keeps food from spoiling.
Practice
In the old grammar book, nouns, verbs and adjectives are described as ______ words because they carry meaning by themselves.
Choose one answer.
'Presentive' is the rare linguistic term for meaning-bearing words, which fits the grammar context. 'Preventive' means stopping something, and 'preservative' is a food substance, so neither fits the sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “presentive”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.