4. Give and illustrate the principles which guide in the use of the number
forms, the gender forms, and the case forms.--Lessons 118, 125, 142.
* * * * *
LESSON 127.
COMPARISON.
+Introductory Hints.+--_That apple is sweet, that other is sweeter, but
this one is the sweetest._ The adjective _sweet_, expressing a quality of
the three apples, is, as you see, inflected by adding _er_ and _est_.
Adjectives, then, have one modification, and this is marked by form, or
inflection. This modification is called +Comparison+, because it is used
when things are compared with one another in respect to some quality common
to them all, but possessed by them in different degrees. The form of the
adjective which expresses the simple quality, as _sweet_, is of the
+Positive Degree+; that which expresses the quality in a greater or a less
degree, as _sweeter_, _less sweet_, is of the +Comparative Degree+; and
that which expresses the quality in the greatest or the least degree, as
_sweetest_, _least sweet_, is of the +Superlative Degree+.
But even the positive implies a comparison; we should not say, This _apple_
is _sweet_, unless this particular fruit had more of the quality than
ordinary apples possess.
Pages:
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357