Comparison of adjectives

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 509.

Adjectives

IRREGULARITIES IN MODERN ENGLISH

E. HANSEN, H.F. NIELSEN

2.1.1. The only kind of inflexion retained by adjectives in ModE is comparison. The comparative suffix -er is a continuation of ME -re, -er, and the superlative suffix is -est (< ME -est), cp. German schön, schöner, am schönsten; Dutch ellending, ellendiger, ellendigst; Danish klog, klogere, klogest.

2.1.2.1. Sometimes, the addition of the suffixes has led to differences between the positive form on the one hand and the comparative and the superlative on the other, a case in point being where a consonant disappeared finally, but was retained medially. Examples of this are the loss of a final voiced stop after a nasal (14th –16th centuries), cp. long /loŋ/ vs. longer /loŋg r/, and the loss of final /r/ in the south of England in the 17^th – 18th centuries, cp. dear /d i /, where intervocalic /r/ was retained in dearer /d i r/, cp. care, caring; star, starry.

2.1.2.2. The types simple, simpler, simplest; full, fuller, fullest are in accordance with the rules governing the variants of /l/ in ModE; 'clear' [l] before vowels (comparative and superlative) and 'dark' [l] where /ł/ is syllabic or in final position (positive).

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2.1.3.2. The doubling of consonants in, e.g., (fit), fitter, fittest, represents an orthographic method of indicating that a preceding vowel is short and accented. The possibility of using doubled consonants in this way arose when in the course of ME long consonants, hitherto designated orthographically by doubling, were lost <…>. But the use is largely restricted to polysyllabic words. At the time when the rules of Modern English spelling were finally established, long vowels in monosyllabic words ending in a single final consonant were indicated by means of orthographic doubling or the addition of a final -e so that the vowel in fit is to be regarded as short and that in keen or fine as long. Final written -e in the last-mentioned word explains why only -r and -st are added to the comparative and superlative forms finer and finest.