Challenging Grammar
Spring 2015 – Handout #5
Institute of English and American Studies
University of Debrecen
Instructor: Éva Kardos
Grade and comparison
(based on Chapter 12 of Huddleston and Pullum 2005)
1. Comparative and superlative grade
As is well known, adjectives inflect for grade; they have plain, comparative and superlative
forms. This also applies to a small number of other lexemes including certain determinatives like
many and adverbs like soon.
(1)
a. tall, taller, tallest
b. many, more, most
c. soon, sooner, soonest
The differences between the forms above have to do with comparison.
In the case of the superlative we are concerned with set comparison, i.e. comparison between the
members of some set with respect to their position on the scale denoted by the lexeme.
(2)
Mark was the tallest boy in this class.
Q: What kind of scale is invoked in the case of (2)?
By contrast, the comparative form is mainly used in term comparison – comparison between a
primary term and a secondary term.
(3)
Mary is taller than Ann.
The primary term is “Mary is x tall”, and the secondary term is “Ann is y tall”. The sentence in
(3) expresses a relation between these two terms such that x > y.
The secondary term can also be unexpressed if it is recoverable from context.
(4)
Mary is tall, but Tom is taller.
Comparative grade is also used in set comparison when the set has just two members.
(5)
Tom is the taller of the two.
The two words more and most can be either determinatives or adverbs, as in (6) and (7),
respectively.
(6)
I had more mistakes than she did.
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(7)
It’s more expensive than I expected.
The same distinction also applies with most, though here we have an additional sense of the
adverb shown in (8).
(8)
I found her most helpful.
Q: What is the meaning of most in this example?
The words less and least similarly belong to both the determinative and adverb classes. As
determinatives they are inflectional forms of little; as adverbs they function as degree modifiers.
(9)
(10)
It has less value than he claimed.
It’s less expensive than I expected.
The opposites of many and much are few and little, and these have distinct comparative forms
fewer and less.
(11)
(12)
He’s had fewer jobs than me.
He’s had less experience than me.
Q: How are few and little different?
Matters are complicated by the fact that less (unlike little) is often used with plurals.
(13)
a. He’s had fewer/less jobs than me.
b. Less/fewer than twenty people attended the meeting.
The word less also contrasts with more in that the former marks inferiority, while the latter
marks superiority.
(14)
(15)
Tom is more optimistic than Pat.
Sara is less optimistic than Mary.
2. Comparison of equality
Comparisons of equality are marked by the modifying adverb as, as in (16).
(16)
Tim is as smart as Rob.
In some contexts, primarily negatives, the adverb as can be replaced by so, and sometimes it is
omitted altogether.
(17)
(18)
It wasn’t so straightforward as I’d been led to expect.
The sea was flat as a pancake.
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3. Non-scalar comparison
There is also a type of comparison where the issue is not a matter of relative degree but simply of
identity or similarity. This is called non-scalar comparison here. Some examples illustrating this
are given in (19).
(19)
a. We went by the same route as we usually take.
b. There must be some other way of doing it than this.
c. Anyone else than you would have complained.
4. Comparative clauses
The prepositions than and as often take as complement a distinctive type of subordinate clause
called a comparative clause. Consider (20).
(20)
a. She did better in the exam than we’d thought she would.
b. The treatment was less painful than it was last time.
c. The pool is nearly as wide as it is long.
d. They come from the same part of Britain as I come from.
Comparative clauses constitute one of the major kinds of finite subordinate clause.
Q: How are they different form other subordinate clauses, e.g. relative clauses?
In non-scalar comparison of equality we also find comparative clauses after the preposition like.
(21)
They don’t get on like they used to.
Q: How do you feel about sentence (21), where like takes a finite complement clause?
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