Comparison of adjectives

Most adjectives are used in comparison; some take suffix -er, some take modifier more, and some take either of these. The typical comparative construction involves examining the similarity between two participants in terms of some property, as in John is taller than Fred and Mary is more intelligent than Kate. Whether a given adjective takes -er or more or either is determined by a combination of phonological and semantic factors. We will first state the phonological parameters, and then the semantically based exceptions to them.

(a) A monosyllabic adjective (whether ending in a consonant or a vowel) will take -er and not more; for example, longer, bigger, squarer, slower, newer, dryer.

(b) A disyllabic monomorphemic adjective ending in /i/ will also only take -er, not more; for example, heavier, happier.

(c) Other disyllabic adjectives ending in a vowel take either -er or more; for example, cleverer or more clever, narrower or more narrow, securer or more secure. This set includes adjectives ending in derivational suffix -y or -ly; for example, luckier or more lucky, friendlier or more friendly.

(d) Disyllabic adjectives ending in syllabic /l/ can also take either -er or more; for example, simpler or more simple, nobler or more noble.

(e) All other adjectives take just more. These cover:

—Disyllabic or longer forms ending in a consonant; for example, more famous, more careful, more difficult.

—Trisyllabic or longer forms ending in a vowel; for example, more familiar, more ordinary, more extraordinary.

Turning now to the semantically-based exceptions:

(i) There is a small set of disyllabic or longer forms ending in a consonant (none ending in a vowel) which would be expected from their phonological form not to take -er but in fact do so. The main exceptions are:

stupid, solid, wicked

pleasant, polite

common, handsome

There are a number of factors which go some way towards explaining these exceptions. For instance, there appears to be a preference for antonymic opposites to behave in the same way. One can say ruder, cleverer, and hollower—sets (a) and (c)—and so also politer, stupider and solider. Another factor is that these are very common, everyday adjectives. A full explanation (in the sense of something which could have been predicted) is not possible. These are exceptions, although not totally surprising exceptions.

(ii) There are adjectives which, by their meaning, should not really be gradable; however, speakers do use them in comparative constructions. Even though the phonological form relates to set (a) or set (b) or set (d), they only occur with more, never with -er. These include:

right, wrong, real, fake, dead, male, ready, single

Basically, something should either be right or not, real or not, dead or not, male or not, single or not, and so on. On logical grounds, one should not compare two items in terms of such a property. But people do, although only using more, never -er(despite the fact that the phonological form would expect -er). If neither Mary nor Jane are married, then both are single. However, one can say Mary [who lives alone] is more single than Jane [who shares an apartment with her friend]. Or John was more right than Peter, if John got every detail correct but Peter only the outline. Or He was more dead than I had realized (the body was starting to decompose).

This provides a fair outline of the comparative forms of adjectives. There are, as would be expected, odd idiosyncrasies, since each lexeme has its own individual character.

As mentioned at the beginning, a comparative adjective is prototypically used to compare two participants in terms of a parameter, as in:

(5) Mary is kinder/more intelligent than Jane

An alternative construction type is to compare two parameters in terms of one participant, as in:

(6) Mary is more kind than intelligent

Note that in (6) the first adjective must take more. That is, kind—a monosyllabic adjective from set (a)—must take -er (not more) in a prototypical comparative construction such as (5); but all adjectives are required to take more in the non-prototypical construction such as (6).

And then there are superlatives. Basically, every adjective which forms a comparative with -er has a corresponding superlative with -est, and those employing more for comparative use most for superlative. Whereas a comparative adjective typically makes up the whole of a complement clause complement, as in (5), the superlative form of an adjective typically modifies a noun in an NP which is marked by the definite article the; for example, Mary is the kindest/most intelligent girl in the class. That is, whereas a comparative relates together two participants of equal status, a superlative effectively identifies a unique individual.