The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two or more entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positive degree) in terms of a certain property or way of doing something.
The usual degrees of comparison are the positive, which denotes a certain property or a certain way of doing something without comparing (as with the English words big and fully); the comparative degree, which indicates greater degree (e.g. bigger and more fully [comparative of superiority] or as big and as fully [comparative of equality] or less big and less fully [comparative of inferiority]); and the superlative, which indicates greatest degree (e.g. biggest and most fully [superlative of superiority] or least big and least fully [superlative of inferiority]). Some languages have forms indicating a very large degree of a particular quality (called elative in Semitic linguistics).
Comparatives and superlatives may be formed in morphology by inflection, as with the English and German -er and -(e)st forms and Latin's -ior (superior, excelsior), or syntactically, as with the English more... and most... and the French plus... and le plus... forms (see § Formation of comparatives and superlatives, below).
Contents
List of degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs
The degrees of comparison found in English are:
the positive degree (used when not comparing entities): e.g. big, fully
the comparative degree (used when comparing two or more entities)
of superiority: e.g. bigger, more fully
of equality: e.g. as big, as fully
of inferiority: e.g. less big, less fully
the superlative degree (used when comparing three or more entities)
of superiority: e.g. biggest, most fully
of inferiority: e.g. least big, least fully
Some languages have forms indicating a very large degree of a particular quality (called elative in Semitic linguistics).
Formation of comparatives and superlatives
Comparatives and superlatives may be formed in morphology by inflection, as with the English and German -er and -(e)st forms and Latin's -ior (superior, excelsior), or syntactically, as with the English more... and most... and the French plus... and le plus... forms. Common adjectives and adverbs often produce irregular forms, such as better and best (from good) and less and least (from little/few) in English, and meilleur (from bon) and mieux (from the adverb bien) in French.
Comparative and superlative constructions
Most, if not all languages have some means of forming the comparative, although the means can vary significantly from one language to the next.
Comparatives are often used with a conjunction or other grammatical means to indicate to what the comparison is being made, as with than in English, als in German, etc. In Russian and Greek (Ancient, Koine and Modern), this can be done by placing the compared noun in the genitive case. With superlatives, the population being considered may be explicitly indicated, as in "the best swimmer out of all the girls".
Languages also possess other structures for comparing adjectives and adverbs, such as "as... as" in English.
А few languages apply comparison to nouns and even verbs. One such language is Bulgarian, where expressions like "по̀ човек (po chovek), най човек (nay chovek), по-малко човек (po malko chovek)" (literally more person, most person, less person but normally better kind of a person, best kind of person, not that good kind of a person) and "по̀ обичам (po obicham), най-малко обичам (nay malko obicham)" (I like more, I like the least) are quite usual.
Usage when considering only two things
In many languages, including English, traditional grammar requires the comparative form to be used when at least two things are being considered, even in constructions where the superlative would be used when considering a larger number. For instance, "May the better man win" would be considered correct if there are two individuals competing. However, this rule is not always observed in informal usage; the form "May the best man win" will often be used in that situation, as is required if there were three or more competitors involved. However, in some cases when two subjects with equal qualities are compared, usage of comparative degree is not necessary. For example, "Ram is as good as Shyam"—positive degree; Since Ram and Shyam are equally good, neither is superior which negates the usage of the comparative. In some contexts this can be written in comparative degree — "Ram is not better than Shyam."
Rhetorical use of unbalanced comparatives
In some contexts such as advertising or political speeches, absolute and relative comparatives are intentionally employed in ways that invite comparison, yet the basis of comparison is not explicit. This is a common rhetorical device used to create an implication of significance where one may not actually be present. Although common, such usage is sometimes considered ungrammatical.
For example:
Why pay more?
We work harder.
We sell for less!
More doctors recommend it.
Usage in languages
Indo-European languages
English has two grammatical constructions for expressing comparison: a morphological one formed using the suffixes -er (the "comparative") and -est (the "superlative"), with some irregular forms, and a syntactic one using the adverbs "more", "most", "less" and "least".
As a general rule, words of one syllable require the suffix (except for a few words such as fun, real, right, wrong), while words of three or more syllables require "more" or "most". This leaves words of two syllables—these are idiomatic, some requiring the morphological construction, some requiring the syntactic and some able to use either (e.g., polite can use politer or more polite), with different frequencies according to context.
The suffixes -er (the "comparative") and -est (the "superlative") are of Germanic origin and are cognate with the Latin suffixes -ior and -issimus and Ancient Greek -ῑ́ων : -īōn and -ῐστος : -istos. They are added to most monosyllabic adjectives and a number of two-syllable adjectives of Anglo-Saxon origin, notably those ending in -y (> Old Eng. -iċ) and -ly (> Old. Eng. -līċ), as well as borrowed words fully assimilated into English vocabulary. Usually the words taking these inflections have fewer than three syllables.
This system also contains a number of irregular forms, some of which, like "good", "better", and "best", contain suppletive forms. These irregular forms include:
In syntactic construction, inserting the words "more" or "most" before an adjective or adverb modifies the resulting phrase to express a relative (specifically, greater) degree of that property. Similarly, inserting the diminutives "less" or "least" before an adjective or adverb expresses a lesser degree.
This system is most commonly used with words not of Anglo-Saxon origin – most often those of French, Latin, or Greek origin. This includes adverbs formed with the suffix -ly (e.g., more beautifully) and such words used as adjectives if they would take -ly as adverbs (e.g. most beautiful). It also tends to include longer, technical, or infrequent words. Some more examples:
The meanings of some adjectives (the ungradable or absolute type) are not exhibitable in degrees, making comparative constructions of them inappropriate. Some qualities are either present or absent, applicable or not applicable, such as a rock being cretaceous vs. igneous, so it appears illogical to call anything "very cretaceous", or to try to characterize something as "more igneous" than something else.
Semitic languages
In Akkadian cuneiform, on a 12-paragraph clay tablet contemporary with the Amarna letters (which span roughly 20 years circa 1350 BC), two striking examples of the superlative extend the common grammatical use. The first is the numeral "10," as well as "7 and 7." The second is a verb-spacement adjustment.
The term "7 and 7" means 'over and over'. The phrase itself is a superlative, but an addition to some of the Amarna letters adds "more" at the end of the phrase (EA 283, Oh to see the King-(pharaoh)): "... I fall at the feet of the king, my lord. I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 and 7 times more, ....". The word 'more' is Akkadian mila, and by Moran is 'more' or 'overflowing'. The meaning in its letter context is "...over and over again, overflowing," (as 'gushingly', or 'obsequiously', as an underling of the king).
The numeral 10 is used for ten times greater in EA 19, Love and Gold, one of King Tushratta's eleven letters to the Pharaoh-(Amenhotep IV-Akhenaton). The following quote using 10, also closes out the small paragraph by the second example of the superlative, where the verb that ends the last sentence is spread across the letter in s-p-a-c-i-n-g, to accentuate the last sentence, and the verb itself (i.e. the relational kingly topic of the paragraph):
".... Now, in keeping with our constant and mutual love, you have made it 10 times greater than the love shown my father. May the gods grant it, and may Teššup, my lord, and Aman make flourish for evermore, just as it is now, this mutual love of ours.
The actual last paragraph line contains three words: 'may it be', 'flourish', and 'us'. The verb flourish (from napāhu?, to light up, to rise), uses: -e-le-né-ep-pi-, and the spaces. The other two words on the line, are made from two characters, and then one: "...may it be, flourish-our (relations)."
Finno-Ugric languages
In Hungarian, the comparative of an adjective is generally formed by adding either -abb, -ebb, or -bb. For adjectives ending in a vowel, -bb is added to the ending, and the vowels a and e will be lengthened with an acute accent. For example, furcsa (strange) + -bb yields furcsább (stranger), and gyenge (weak) + -bb yields gyengébb (weaker).
For adjectives ending in a consonant, vowel harmony is observed. Hungarian has two sets of vowels: front (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, and ű) and back (a, á, o, ó, u, and ú). For words whose last vowel is a front vowel, -ebb is added to the ending; for words whose last vowel is a back vowel, -abb is added instead. For example, magas (tall) + -abb yields magasabb (taller), and dühös (angry) + -ebb yields dühösebb (angrier).
Exceptions to these rules include könnyű (easy), which becomes könnyebb (easier) instead of könnyűbb, and szép (beautiful), which becomes szebb (more beautiful) instead of szépebb.
To form the superlative in Hungarian, the prefix leg- is added to the beginning of the comparative form of the adjective. For example, leg- + furcsább (stranger) yields legfurcsább (strangest), and leg- + szebb (more beautiful) yields legszebb (most beautiful).
There are two ways in which comparatives can appear in sentences. The most common way is determiner + subject + comparative adjective + mint (than) + determiner + object. For example, “The cheetah is faster than its prey” becomes:
a gepárd gyors-abb mint a zsákmány-a
ᴅᴇᴛ.ᴅᴇꜰ cheetah fast-ᴄᴍᴘʀ than ᴅᴇᴛ.ᴅᴇꜰ prey-𝟥ꜱɢ.ᴘᴏꜱꜱ
Note that Hungarian makes no distinction between phrasal and clausal comparisons in its grammar; both ‘than its prey’ and ‘than its prey is’ are written as ‘mint a zsákmánya’. The other, less common way to write comparative sentences is determiner + subject + comparative adjective + determiner + adessive object. So, the same sentence would be:
Universals of degrees of comparison
Russell Ultan (1972) surveyed 20 languages and observed that the comparative and superlative are inflected forms of (near-)identical bases with respective to the positive and equative. Jonathan D. Bobaljik (2012) contends that Ultan’s generalization is a strong contender for a linguistic universal. Bobaljik formulates the Comparative-Superlative Generalization: With respect to the positive, if any adjective’s comparative degree were suppletive, so would its superlative; vice versa, if any adjective’s superlative degree were suppletive, then so would its comparative.
Bobaljik phrases the Containment Hypothesis thus: "The representation of the superlative properly contains that of the comparative (in all languages that have a morphological superlative)". Indeed:
in many languages (Persian, Ubykh, Cherokee, Chukchi, etc.) the superlative transparently contains the comparative;
in Celtic languages, Arabic, Klon, Totonac, etc. the comparatives and the superlatives are formally similar;
in Romance languages, Greek, Maltese, etc. the superlatives are derived from the comparatives by means of the addition of definite articles.
Additionally, Bobaljik asserts that Universal Grammar lacks the superlative morpheme.