Comparative

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Comparative

In grammar

Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
, the comparative is the form of an adjective

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
or adverb

Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than, as...as, etc.

structure of a comparative in English consists normally of the positive

Positive

Positive is a property of positivity and may refer to:...
form of the adjective or adverb, plus the suffix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
-er, or (in the case of polysyllabic words borrowed from foreign languages) the modifier "more" (or "less"/ "fewer") before the adjective or adverb.

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Encyclopedia

In grammar

Grammar

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
or adverb

Adverb

Structure

The structure of a comparative in English consists normally of the positive

Positive

Positive is a property of positivity and may refer to:...
form of the adjective or adverb, plus the suffix

Affix

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
which is being compared, e.g. "he is taller than his father is", or "the village is less picturesque than the town nearby". "Than" is used as a subordinating conjunction to introduce the second element of a comparative sentence while the first element expresses the difference ("our new house is larger than the old one"). There is less water in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south....
that there is in the United States; but however, there are fewer people in Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
than there are in California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
.

Two-clause sentences

For sentences with the two clauses other two-part comparative subordinating conjunctions may be used:

as...as ("The house was as large as two put together.")
not so / not as ...as ("The coat of paint is not as [not so] fresh as it used to be.")
the same ... as ("The market square is just the same as I remember it to be.")
less / more ... than ("It cost me more than I had hoped.")

Adverbs

The adverb is determined by the -ly suffix as usual, and in a comparative phrase changes to -lier. However, adverbs with a greater number of syllables than two, require the use of more (or less), as in ("this sofa seats three people more comfortably than the other one"). Some irregular adverbs such as fast / often may be added without the suffix, ("My new car starts more quickly than the old one."), or ("My new car starts quicker/faster than the old one."), and ("I go into town more often than I used to.").

Null comparative

The null comparative is a comparative in which the starting point for comparison is not stated. These comparisons are frequently found in advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
. For example, in typical assertions such as "our burgers have more flavor", "our picture is sharper" or "50% more", there is no mention of what it is they are comparing to. In some cases it is easy to infer what the missing element in a null comparative is. In other cases the speaker or writer has been deliberately vague & weak in this regard, for example "Glasgow's miles better

Glasgow's miles better

Glasgow's Miles Better was a campaign to promote the city of Glasgow as a tourist destination and as a location for industry. It was developed by Scottish advertising agency, Struthers Advertising, and featured the phrase "Glasgow's Miles Better" wrapped around the cartoon figure of Mr Happy....
".

Greater/lesser

Scientific classification, taxonomy and geographical categorization conventionally include the adjectives greater and lesser, when a large or small variety of an item is meant, as in the greater celandine

Greater celandine

Chelidonium majus, commonly known as the greater celandine or tetterwort , is the only species in the genus Chelidonium, family Papaveraceae....
as opposed to the lesser celandine

Lesser celandine

Lesser celandine, is a low-growing, hairless perennial plant, with fleshy dark green, heart-shaped Leaf. The plant is found throughout Europe and west Asia and is now introduced in North America....
. These adjectives may at first sight appear as a kind of null comparative, when as is usual, they are cited without their opposite counterpart. It is clear however, when reference literature is consulted that an entirely different variety of animal, scientific or geographical object is intended. Thus it may be found, for example, that the lesser panda entails a giant panda

Giant Panda

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family , native to central-western and southwestern China. The Giant Panda was previously thought to be a member of the Procyonidae family....
variety, and a gazetteer would establish that there are the Lesser Antilles

Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
as well as the Greater Antilles

Greater Antilles

File:LocationGreaterAntilles.pngThe Greater Antilles is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico--the four largest islands of the Antilles--the Greater Antilles constitutes almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies....
.

It is in the nature of grammatical conventions evolving over time that it is difficult to establish when they first became widely accepted, but both greater and lesser in these instances have over time become mere adjectives (or adverbial constructs), so losing their comparative connotation.

When referring to metropolitan area

Metropolitan area

A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central city and their zone of influence....
s, Greater indicates that adjacent areas such as suburb

Suburb

Suburbs are commonly defined as the residential areas which surround the central area of the urban area of a town or city. In the United States, suburbs have a prevalence of usually detached single-family homes.....
s are being included. Although it implies a comparison with a narrower definition that refers to a central city only, such as Greater London

Greater London

Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The administrative area was officially created in 1965 and covers the City of London , the City of Westminster and the other 31 London boroughs....
versus the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a geographically small city status in the United Kingdom within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which, along with Westminster, the modern conurbation grew....
, or Greater New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
versus New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, it is not part of the "comparative" in the grammatical sense this article describes. A comparative always compares something directly with something else.

It does not look for conceptual differences as "city" versus a concept such as a "named area" and has two clauses with subordinating conjunctions (than, etc.).

Comparative

Structure

Two-clause sentences

Adverbs

Null comparative

Greater/lesser

See also