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Ellie K
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Tweeted twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/45807007915180032
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brilliant
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How would you name these two different types of adjectival qualifying?

If I say "Max is quite joyful right now" that would mean that Max is experiencing a feeling of joy, right? But if I say "This needle is rather painful" that would mean that somebody else is experiencing or could experience a feeling of pain because of that needle (not that the needle is having some pain).

Thus, in the first case the feeling is "inside" the thing qualified by the adjective, while in the second case the feeling is "outside" of the thing qualified by the adjective. Clearly, we are dealing here with two different types of how the emotive adjectives function: some of them seem to impart the feeling (emotion) to their object, while the others seem to provide their objects with an ability of causing that feeling in others.

How would you call the first type? How would you call the second type? Do you know any terms that would describe these two different types of adjectival qualifying? If not, how would you yourself name them.