The degree of sufficiency
This comprises three terms: ‘excess’, ‘sufficiency’, ‘insufficiency’, realized by the adverbs too, enough, not enough, respectively. When functioning predicatively, that is at Cs, the AdjG structure is as follows:
excess: This knife is too sharp.
sufficiency: Is this knife sharp enough?
insufficiency: This knife is not sharp enough.
When the AdjG modifies a count noun, the NG structures are as follows:
excess: This is too sharp a knife.
sufficiency: This is a sharp enough knife.
insufficiency: This is not a sharp enough knife./These are not sharp enough knives.
If the noun is uncountable or plural (e.g. weather, knives), only the predicative structure is used for the expression of ‘excess’:
excess: The weather was too wet. *It was too wet weather.
These knives are too sharp. *These are too sharp knives.
The degree of excess can be expressed by the lexical item over (AmE overly) used as a compound adjective: Don’t be over-anxious about the future.
