Comparison (grammar)
Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe. In languages that have it, the comparative construction expresses quality, quantity, or degree relative to some other comparator. The superlative construction expresses the greatest quality, quantity, or degree—i.e. relative to all other comparators.
The associated grammatical category is degree of comparison. The usual degrees of comparison are the positive, which simply denotes a property ; the comparative, which indicates greater degree ; and the superlative, which indicates greatest degree. Some languages have forms indicating a very large degree of a particular quality. Other languages can express lesser degree, e.g. beautiful, less beautiful, least beautiful.
The comparative degrees are frequently associated with adjectives and adverbs because these words take the -er suffix or modifying word more or less.. Comparison can also, however, appear when no adjective or adverb is present, for instance with nouns. However, the usage of the word than between nouns simply denotes a comparison made and not degree of comparison comparing the intensity or the extent of the subjects. One preposition, near, also has comparative and superlative forms, as in Find the restaurant nearest your house.
Formation of comparatives and superlatives
Comparatives and superlatives may be formed in morphology by inflection, as with the English and German -er and -st forms and Latin's -ior, 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 and less and least in English, and meilleur and mieux in French.Comparative and superlative constructions
Most if not all languages have some means of forming the comparative, although these 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, 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; English examples include "as... as" and "less/least...".
А few languages apply comparison to nouns and even verbs. One such language is Bulgarian, where expressions like "по̀ човек, най човек, по-малко човек " and "по̀ обичам, най-малко обичам " are quite usual.
Usage when considering only two things
In many languages, including English, traditional grammar requires the comparative form to be used when exactly 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 only 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 superlative degree isn't possible. For example, "Ram is as good as Shyam"—positive degree; "Ram is not better than Shyam"—comparative degree. Since Ram and Shyam are equally good, neither is superior which negates the usage of the superlative.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.
English
As a general rule, words of one syllable require the suffix, 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, with different frequencies according to context.
Morphological comparison
The suffixes -er and -est are of Germanic origin and are cognate with the Latin suffixes -ior and -issimus and Ancient Greek -īōn and -istos. They are typically added to shorter words, words of Anglo-Saxon origin, and 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:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| good | better | best |
| well | better | best |
| bad, evil | worse | worst |
| ill | worse | worst |
| far | farther | farthest |
| far | further | furthest |
| little | less | least |
| many | more | most |
| much | more | most |
Syntactic comparison
In syntactic construction, inserting the words "more" or "most" before an adjective or adverb modifies the resulting phrase to express a relative 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 of French or Latin derivation; with adjectives and adverbs formed with suffixes other than -ly ; and with longer, technical, or infrequent words. For example:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| beautiful | more beautiful | most beautiful |
| often | more often | most often |
| observant | less observant | least observant |
| coherently | less coherently | least coherently |
Absolute adjectives
Some adjectives' meanings are not exhibitable in degrees, making comparative constructions of them inappropriate. Some qualities are either present or absent such as being cretaceous vs. igneous, so it appears illogical to call anything "very cretaceous", or to characterize something as "more igneous" than something else.Some grammarians object to the use of the superlative or comparative with words such as full, complete, unique, or empty, which by definition already denote a totality, an absence, or an absolute. However, such words are routinely and frequently qualified in contemporary speech and writing. This type of usage conveys more of a figurative than a literal meaning, because in a strictly literal sense, something cannot be more or less unique or empty to a greater or lesser degree.
Many prescriptive grammars and style guides include adjectives for inherently superlative qualities to be non-gradable. Thus, they reject expressions such as more perfect, most unique, and most parallel as illogical pleonasms: after all, if something is unique, it is one of a kind, so nothing can be "very unique", or "more unique" than something else.
Other style guides argue that terms like perfect and parallel never apply exactly to things in real life, so they are commonly used to mean nearly perfect, nearly parallel, and so on; in this sense, more perfect and more parallel are meaningful.
Balto-Slavic languages
In most Balto-Slavic languages, the comparative and superlative forms are also declinable adjectives.In Bulgarian, comparative and superlative forms are formed with the clitics по- and най- :
In Czech, Polish, Slovak, Ukrainian and Slovene, comparative is formed from the base form of an adjective with a suffix and superlative is formed with a circumfix.
In Russian, comparative and superlative forms are usually formed with a suffix:
Romance languages
In contrast to English, the relative and the superlative are joined into the same degree, which can be of two kinds: comparative and absolute.French: The superlative is created from the comparative by inserting the definitive article, or the possessive article, before "plus" or "moins" and the adjective determining the noun. For instance: Elle est la plus belle femme → ; Cette ville est la moins chère de France → ; C'est sa plus belle robe →. It can also be created with the suffix "-issime" but only with certain words, for example: "C'est un homme richissime" →. Its use is often rare and ironic.
Spanish: The comparative superlative, like in French, has the definite article, or the possessive article, followed by the comparative, so that "el meñique es el dedo más pequeño" or "el meñique es el más pequeño de los dedos" is "the pinky is the smallest finger." Irregular comparatives are "mejor" for "bueno" and "peor" for "malo," which can be used as comparative superlatives also by adding the definite article or possessive article, so that "nuestro peor error fue casarnos" is "our worst mistake was to get married."
The absolute superlative is normally formed by modifying the adjective by adding -ísimo, -ísima, -ísimos or -ísimas, depending on the gender or number. Thus, "¡Los chihuahuas son perros pequeñísimos!" is "Chihuahuas are such tiny dogs!" Some irregular superlatives are "máximo" for "grande," "pésimo" for "malo," "ínfimo" for "bajo," "óptimo" for "bueno," "acérrimo" for "acre," "paupérrimo" for "pobre," "celebérrimo" for "célebre."
There is a difference between comparative superlative and absolute superlative: Ella es la más bella → ; Ella es bellísima →.
Portuguese and Italian distinguish comparative superlative and absolute superlative .
For the comparative superlative they use the words "mais" and "più" between the article and the adjective, like "most" in English.
For the absolute superlative they either use "muito"/"molto" and the adjective or modify the adjective by taking away the final vowel and adding issimo, issima, íssimos/issimi, or íssimas/issime. For example:
- "Acre" which means acrid, becomes "acérrimo"/"acerrimo". "Magro" becomes "magérrimo."
- Italian
Celtic languages
Tha mi nas àirde na mo pheathraichean. → I am taller than my sisters.Is mi as àirde. → I am the tallest.
As in English, some forms are irregular, i.e. nas fheàrr, nas miosa, etc.
In other tenses, nas is replaced by na bu and as by a bu, both of which lenite the adjective if possible. If the adjective begins with a vowel or an f followed by a vowel, the word bu is reduced to b'. For example:
- Bha mi na b' àirde na mo pheathraichean. → I was taller than my sisters.
- B' e mi a b' àirde. → I was the tallest.
In Welsh, the equative is denoted by inflection in more formal registers, with -ed being affixed to the adjective, usually preceded, but not obligatorily, by cyn. For example: Mae Siôn cyn daled â fi. Irregular adjectives have specific equative forms, such as da : cystal = 'as good as'.
Akkadian
In Akkadian cuneiform,, from the time period of the 1350 BC Amarna letters, 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 : "... 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,".
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-. 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 :
The actual last paragraph line contains three words: 'may it be', 'flourish', and 'us'. The verb flourish, 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."''