Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
There is a difference between comparative superlative and absolute superlative: Ella es la más bella → (she is the most beautiful); Ella es bellísima → (she is extremely beautiful). Portuguese and Italian distinguish comparative superlative (superlativo relativo) and absolute superlative (superlativo absoluto/assoluto). For the ...
The degree determiners much/many, little/few, and their comparative and superlative forms more, most, less/fewer, least/fewest all express quantification. Where two forms are given, the first is used with non-count nouns and the second with count nouns (although in colloquial English less and least are frequently also used with count nouns).
First and second declension adjectives that end in -eus or -ius are unusual in that they do not form the comparative and superlative by taking endings at all. Instead, magis ('more') and maximē ('most'), the comparative and superlative degrees of magnoperē ('much, greatly'), respectively, are used.
The comparative form of an adverb is the same as the neuter nominative singular form of a comparative adjective and usually ends in -ius. Instead of the adjective clārior, which means "brighter", the adverb is clārius, which means "more brightly". The superlative adverb has the same base as the superlative adjective and always ends in a long -ē.
Many adjectives, however, particularly those that are longer and less common, do not have inflected comparative and superlative forms. Instead, they can be qualified with more and most , as in beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful (this construction is also sometimes used even for adjectives for which inflected forms do exist).
Accounts that acknowledge comparative subdeletion posit a null measure expression in the position marked by the blank (x-many, x-much). This element serves to focus the expression in the same way that -er or more focuses its counterpart in the main clause. Various arguments are put forth that motivate the existence of this null element. [8]
The comparative and superlative can also be formed analytically by using meer "more" and meest "most", but this is much rarer than in English. The analytic forms are used only when the word would become particularly long, or when it would become hard to pronounce (particularly in the superlative). The comparative is formed by adding -er to the ...
This article lists common abbreviations for grammatical terms that are used in linguistic interlinear glossing of oral languages [nb 1] in English.. The list provides conventional glosses as established by standard inventories of glossing abbreviations such as the Leipzig Glossing rules, [2] the most widely known standard.