'Epithet'. The Epithet indicates some quality of the subset, e.g. 'old', 'long', 'blue', 'fast'. This may be an objective property of the thing itself, or it may be an expression of the speaker’s subjective attitude towards it, e.g. 'splendid', 'silly', 'fantastic'. There is no hard and fast line between these two; but the former are experential in function, whereas the latter, expressing the speaker’s attitude, represent an interpersonal element in the meaning of the nominal group.
- Halliday (1985), Pag. 163