Part 47 (1/2)
REGULAR COMPARISON
Adjectives are regularly co _er_, and the superlative, by adding _est_ to thereatest_; Pos, _mild_, Comp, _milder_, Superl, _mildest_
In the variation of adjectives, final consonants are doubled, final _e_ is oreeably to the rules for spelling: as, _hot, hotter, hottest; wide, wider, widest; happy, happier, happiest_
The regular s al in _w_ or _y_, and such others as receive it and still have but one syllable after the accent: as, _fierce, fiercer, fiercest; narrow, narrower, narrowest; glooloomiest; serene, serener, serenest; noble, nobler, noblest; gentle, gentler, gentlest_
COMPARISON BY ADVERBS
The two degrees of superiority may also be expressed with precisely the sa to the adjective the adverbs _more_ and _most_: as, _wise, more wise, most wise; famous, more famous, most farees of inferiority are expressed, in like manner, by the adverbs _less_ and _least_: as, _wise, less wise, least wise; famous, less famous, least faular rees of this kind
Nearly all adjectives that adrees, may be coular enerally preferable: as, _quick, quicker, quickest_; rather than, _quick, more quick, enius of our language is particularly averse to the lengthening of long words by additional syllables; and, in the comparison of adjectives, _er_ and _est_ always add a syllable to the word, except it end in _le_ after a mute Thus, _free, freer, freest_, increases syllabically; but _ample, ampler, amplest_, does not Whether any particular adjective ad from the sense of the terree awords shall not be inflected, and for the shorter, there is generally an obvious bias in favour of one form rather than the other Dr Johnson says, ”The coulated by coreeableness of sound, is not easily reduced to rules Monosyllables are commonly compared Polysyllables, or words of more than two syllables, are seldom compared otherwise than by _more_ and _most_ Dissyllables are seldo, ous, ed, id, at, ent, ain, or ive_”--_Graue_, p 6 ”When the positive contains but one syllable, the degrees are usually for _er_ or _est_ When the positive contains two syllables, it is rees The ear is, in this case, the best guide But, when the positive contains rees must be formed by the use of _more_ and _most_ We may say, _tenderer_ and _tenderest, pleasanter_ and _pleasantest, prettier_ and _prettiest_; but who could endure _delicater_ and _delicatest_?”--_Cobbett's E Gram_, p 81 _Quiet, bitter, clever, sober_, and perhaps soularly compared; but such words as _secretest, famousest, virtuousest, powerfullest_, which were used by Milton, have gone out of fashi+on The following, though not very commonly used, are perhaps allowable ”Yet these are the two _coical Museuhout life uarded by armed men”--_Ib_, i, 437 ”Franklin possessed the rare talent of drawing useful lessons from the _commonest_ occurrences”--_Murray's Sequel_, p 323
”Unbidden guests are often _welcoone”--SHAK: _in Joh Dict_
”There was a lad, th' _unluckiest_ of his crew, Was still contriving so bad, but new”--KING: _ib_
OBS 2--I ular comparison by _er_ and _est_, and the corammatical point of view, these two h the sa expressed in the one case, by an inflection of the adjective; and in the other, by a phrase consisting of two different parts of speech
If the placing of an adverb before an adjective is to be called a grammatical modification or variation of the latter word, we shall have rees than those which are enumerated above The words ree being ascribed to the adverb--or, if you please, to both words, for both are varied in sense by the inflection of the forrees in which qualities rees hich the grammarian is concerned, are those which our variation of the adjective or adverb enables us to express--including, as of course we must, the state or sense of the pri which would ree, would also make the nominative case, or the _casus rectus_ of the Latins, to be no case
OBS 3--Whenever the adjective itself denotes these degrees, and is duly varied in for to it; as, _worthy, worthier, worthiest_ (Though no apology can be ree of a quality_, with the _verbal sign_ which expresses it) If an adverb is employed for this purpose, that also is corees thus formed or expressed, are properly its own; as, worthy, _rees ree_ worthy, _in the highest degree_ worthy Here also the adjective _worthy_ is virtually corarees with several adverbs to each, thus: Pos, _very truly_ worthy; Comp, _much more truly_ worthy; Sup, _much the h not varied in themselves like _much, more, most_, may nevertheless have nearly the same effect upon the adjective; as, worthy, _comparatively_ worthy, _superlatively_ worthy I rammarians have erroneously parsed the adverbs _more_ and _most, less_ and _least_, as parts of the adjective
OBS 4--Harris, in his Her Universal Grammar, has very uncererees of comparison, to be _absurd_; and the author of the British Gra any defence of that doctrine, seeation ”Mr Harris observes, that, 'There cannot well be rees; one to denote simple excess, and one to denote superlative Were we indeed to introduce ht perhaps to introduce infinite, which is absurd For why stop at a limited number, when in all subjects, susceptible of intension, the intermediate excesses are in a rees of _more white_ between the first simple _white_ and the superlative _whitest_; the sa, rarees, which they call the Positive, the Comparative, and the Superlative, must needs be absurd; both because in their Positive there is no comparison at all, and because their Superlative is a Comparative as much as their Comparative itself'
_Hermes_, p 197”--_Brit Graed
No coether as many as two terree of coh neither this nor the superlative is, for that reason, ”_a Corees, I have already shoe have three _forms_, and only three
OBS 5--”The terree of conification is di to blackness; _salt, saltish_, or having a little taste of salt:[179] they therefore admit of no comparison This ter sensible qualities, nor often to words of above one syllable, and is scarcely used in the soleree] denotes a slight degree of the quality, and is expressed by the termination _ish_; as, _reddish, brownish, yellowish_ This ree of the attribute”--_Dr Webster's Improved Gram_, p 47 I doubt the correctness of the view taken above by Johnson, and dissent entirely froree_ of comparison” Of adjectives in _ish_ we have perhaps a hundred; but nine out of ten of theirlish_; and who can prove that _blackish, saltish, reddish, brownish_, and _yellowish_, are not also from the _nouns, black, salt, red, brown_, and _yellow_? or that ”a _e,”--”a _more saltish_ taste,” are not correct phrases? There is, I a this terree of coraree as ain: as,
”And seee corees of comparison, some have enumerated that of _equality_; as e say, ”It is _as sweet as_ honey” Here is indeed a coree, and needs no other naain refutes Harris; who says, that in the positive there is no coree there may be comparisons of _inequality_ also; as, ”Molasses is _not so sweet_ as honey”--”Civility is _not so slight_ a _, p 92 Nay, such comparisons may equal any superlative Thus it is said, I think, in the Life of Robert Hall: ”Probably no hu ever before suffered _so much_ bodily pain” What a preeminence is here! and yet the forree ”Nothing _so uncertain_ as general reputation”--_Art of Thinking_, p 50 ”Nothing _so nauseous_ as undistinguishi+ng civility”--_Ib_, p 88 These, likewise, would be strong expressions, if they were correct English But, to my apprehension, every such comparison of equality involves a solecism, when, as it here happens, the foreneral negative, and _reputation_ is a particular affirmative The comparison of equality between the_ cannot be equal to _so, and of course equal to itself, the proposition is evidently untrue It ought to be, ”Nothing _is eneral reputation” This is the same as to say, ”General reputation is _as uncertain as any thing_ that can be named” Or else the for else_”--or, ”No _other_ thing, is _so uncertain_ as” _this popular honour, public esteeeneral reputation_” And so of all similar examples
OBS 7--In all coree which is expressed by the adjective or adverb The superlative degree requires that the object to which it relates, be one of those hich it is compared; as, ”_Eve_ was _the fairest_ of woree, on the contrary, requires that the object spoken of be not included a those hich it is cohters_” To take the inclusive term here, and say, ”_Eve_ was _fairer_ than any _woman_,” would be no less absurd, than Milton's assertion, that ”Eve was _the fairest_ of _her daughters_:” the former supposes that she was _not a wohters_ But Milton's solecism is double; he oodliest hters Eve”--_P Lost_, B iv, l 324
OBS 8--”Such adjectives,” says Churchill, ”as have in thenification, or express qualities not susceptible of degrees, do not properly admit either the comparative or [the] superlative form
Under this rule ative prefix_”--_New Granifies instant, present with regard to time, Prior should not have written '_more_ immediate' _Dr Johnson_”--_Ib_, p 233 ”Hooker has _unaptest_; Locke, _more uncorrupted_; Holder, _more undeceivable_: for these the proper expressions would have been the opposite signs without the negation: _least apt, less corrupted, less deceivable_ Watts speaks of 'a _most unpassable_ barrier' If he had simply said 'an unpassable barrier,' we should have understood it at once in the strongest sense, as a barrier i to express so less; we perceive, that his _unpassable_ means _difficult to pass_ This is theafter strength, sinks into weakness”--_Ib_, p 234
OBS 9--The foregoing reeneral_ to have been dictated by good sense; but, if his own practice is right, therethe coative prefix; for, in the phrase ”_less ie quoted before, he will have to be different from ”_more prudent_,” he himself furnishes an example of such comparison In fact, very ood writers: as, ”Nothing is _more unnecessary_”--_Lowth's Gram, Pref_, p v ”What is yet _more unaccountable_”--ROGERS: _in Joh Dict_ ”It is hard to deterible_”--_Id, ib_ ”Where it appears the __ and _unnatural_”--ADDISON: _ib_ ”Men of the best sense and of the _most unblemished_ lives”--_Id, ib_ ”March and September are the _most unsettled_ and _unequable_ of seasons”--BENTLEY: _ib_ ”Barcelona was taken by a _most unexpected_ accident”--SWIFT: _ib_ ”The _ood, but _most unwise_ patricians!”--SHAK: _ib_ ”_More unconstant_ than the wind”--_Id, ib_ ”We may say _more_ or _less imperfect_”--_Murray's Gram_, p 168 ”Some of those [passions] which act with the _y upon the hearts of ue of Aristotle”--_Ada of hi me, is _too un, on Emancipation_, p 52 ”Which, we are sensible, are _more inconclusive_ than the rest”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 319
”Ere yet the salt of _alled eyes”--_Shak_