Hi!

I'm trying to put together a comprehensive list of English adjectives that, in linguistic terms, "license Measure Phrases (MPs)".

In non-professional terms, this means I am looking for English adjectives that combine with measurements.

The easiest way to explain what I am looking for is using examples.

Consider these adjective constructions (the MPs are in bold):

"6 feet tall"
"3 meters deep"
"5 years old"
"2 minutes late"

It's exactly adjectives such as these that I am looking for...

Up to now, I was able to come up with the following (surprisingly short) list of adjectives:

tall
wide
long (both time and space)
deep
thick
old
high
strong (e.g. The crowd was 1000 people strong)
sharp/flat (e.g. Your DO is 20 hertz sharp)
fast/slow (for time, e.g. Your watch is 3 minutes fast/slow)
late
early

as well as some really interesting non-standard uses of adjectives:
short (money, e.g. Can you lend me some money? I am 3 dollars short)


and some other questionable ones:
open - as in the door is 20 degrees open, 20 cm open

But i was wondering if you could think of any adjectives that i may have missed...


A few qualifications:

1. I am not looking for adjectives that allow percents,
e.g. 30% full, 100% sure, 90% ready, etc.

2. It is very important that the adjectives not appear in the comparative form because then all adjectives license MPs, for example:
20 cm shorter, 20 degrees hotter, 3 pounds heavier, 10 points more intelligent, etc.

3. Likewise, for the same reason, the adjectives should not appear before an excessive "too"
20 cm too short, 20 degrees too hot, 3 pounds too heavy...

4. Also make sure that it's an adjective and not a preposition (e.g. 10 meters under/behind, 10 minutes before/after)

5. There are no right or wrong answers... (I've met people who consider "100 degrees hot" to be ok...) - just use your judgments as native English speakers

6. Make sure you can embed the "MP adjective" construction in a sentence, otherwise your judgment may be skewed.

Any contributions (even of strange combinations like Leonard Cohen's "1000 kisses deep") will be helpful! :-)

Thank you!!

blessings! :-)