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"A spreading oak," spreading is an adjective relating to oak; if, "A boy spreading hay," spreading is a participle, governing hay, and relating to boy, because the boy is the agent of the action. So, when Dr. Webster says, "The off horse in a team," off is an adjective, relating to the noun _horse_; but, in the phrase, "A man off his guard," off is a preposition, showing the relation between man and guard, and governing the latter. The following are other examples: "From the above speculations."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 194. "An after period of life."--MARSHALL: _in Web. Dict._ "With some other of the after Judaical rites."--Right of Tythes, p. 86. "Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug."--_Shak._ "Especially is over exertion made."--_Journal of Lit. Conv._, p. 119. "To both the under worlds."--Hudibras. "Please to pay to A. B. the amount of the within bill." Whether properly used or not, the words _above, after, beneath, over, under, and within_, are here unquestionably made _adjectives_; yet every scholar knows, that they are generally prepositions, though sometimes adverbs.
CLASSES.
Adjectives may be divided into six classes; namely, _common, proper, numeral, pronominal, participial_, and compound.
I. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation; as, _Good, bad, peaceful, warlike--eastern, western, outer, inner_.
II. A proper adjective is an adjective formed from a proper name; as, _American, English, Platonic, Genoese_.
III. A numeral adjective is an adjective that expresses a definite number; as, _One, two, three, four, five, six_, &c.
IV. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its noun, or represent it understood; as, "All join to guard what each desires