Marco handout teoria gramatical

Universidad de Santiago de ChileFacultad de HumanidadesDepartamento de LingüísticaLicenciatura en Educación en Inglés

COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

COMPARATIVES

Comparison: human ability which allwos us to put things in different degrees stablishing differences or similarities.

When comparing two “objects” we use the comparative construction in order to put them at to specific points anywhere on a scale (degrees: height, weight, knowledge, etc.). For this purpose we can use nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, taking the following basic structure:

X A than Y

This is analized as a complex sentence with a complementizer, which is a subordinator, in the middle. Verbs: That book costs more than that one (does)

Nouns: Jack has more money than Harry (does/has)

Is/has

other verbs

MORE

LESS

Transformational rules:

Copy s/t: That book –Pres [+3 +s] more than that one –Pres [+3 +s] do

Ellipsis: That book –Pres [+3+s] cost more than that one.

Morphology: that book costs more than that one. Transformational rules:

Copy s/t: Jack –pres [+3+s] have more money than Harry –pres [+3+s] have/do.

Ellipsis: Jack –pres [+3+s] have more money than Harry.

Morphology: John has more money than Harry.

Adverbs: Peter reads faster than john (does/reads)

Adjectives: John is taller than Mary (is)

SUPERLATIVES

Comparison established between three or more objects, persons, or properties ranked first or last on a scale (the exrtemes of this). It does not indicate a higher degree than the comparative, but gives other point of view. On the other hand it behaves exactly like the comparative.

NOTE: It doesn’t matter the amount of object being compared, you can use either the comparative or the superlative form. There is not a rule for this.

Example:

Clem is the tallest boy in my class.

Transformational rules:

Copy s/t: Peter –Pres [+3+s] read more fast than John –Pres [+3+s] do/read

Ellipsis: Peter –Pres [+3+s] read more fast than John

Morphology: Peter reads faster than John

Transformational rules:

Copy s/t: John –Pres [+3+s] be more tall than Mary –Pres [+3+s] be.

Ellipsis: John –Pres [+3+s] be more tall than Mary.

Morphology: John is taller than Mary.

Transformational rules:

Copy s/t: Clem –Pres [+3+s] be the most tall boy in my class.

Morphology: Clem in the tallest boy in my class.

When a pronoun follows than and takes object form there is not verb phrase, therefore than has a prepositional force:

LESS V/S FEWER

LESS: UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS (there’s a strong tendency in native speaker to use less with plural countable nouns)

FEWER: PLURAL COUNTABLE NOUNS

MORE (-ER) V/S FEWER – MOST (-EST) V/S LEAST

Both comparative and superlatives constructions can express negative comparison (using the negative form fewer and least), but since there is an adjective/adverb polarity (positive and negative), the negative form is less used in any given language. Look at the following diagram:

There is a strong tendency both in superlative and comparatives constructions to use the unmarked form (he is the shortest - he is the least tall * He is shorter than John - he is less tall than John). This is just a matter of tendencies in language.

ESL/EFL LEARNER`S PROBLEMS

- Omition of the inflection and maybe the copula.- Change the word than or use it in a wrogn way.- Use more/most where the –er/-est inflection is required, or vice versa.- Use the regular pattern where the irregular is needed.- Doble marking of the comparative/superlative.- The superlative may be harder to learn than the comparative because of their

symilar form.- In most ESL/EFL textbooks comparatives and superlatives are usualy presented in

tha same chapter, which tend to confuse students when using them.