Re: Comparison Terminology

Jeff Jones wrote:

> I have a problem I haven't been able to solve involving terminology used in
> sentences with comparisons. I haven't found enough in the archives to help.
>
> It seems to me the clause has 4 components:
> A. what's being compared
> B. what the subject is being compared to
> C. the attribute being used for comparison
> D. the rest of the clause
>
> Examples:
>
> 1. John bakes more bread than Mary.
>     A=John  B=Mary  C=(more) bread D=bakes
> 2. John bakes more bread than cakes.
>     A=bread  B=cakes  C=(more) [quantity of?] D=bakes
> 3. John bakes potatoes more than he boils them.
>     A=bakes  B=boils  C=(more) [often?] D=John, potatoes
>
> Now for my questions:
> First of all, is this a good analysis?
Seems reasonable to me.


> If so, what terminology is used for the various components?
(A) is usually called the "subject of comparison" and (B) is usually called the
"standard of comparison".  Your (C) seems to conflate two things, namely the
'directionality' of comparison (more, less, equal) and the scale of comparison
(frequency, size, amount, etc.).  "Scale of comparison" is a quasi-official
term, I would say, but I don't think there's an official term for what I'm
calling the 'directionality'.

There's an additional (optional) component to comparatives, namely the "degree
of comparison".  The degree tells you the amount--as measured along the scale
of comparison--by which the subject and standard of comparison diverge from
each other.  For example, in "John is two years older than Bill", the subject
of comparison is "John", the standard of comparison is "Bill", the
directionality is "(more)", the scale is "(age)", and the degree is "two years"
(viz. on the scale of age, the measure of distance between John and Bill is two
years).

Hope that helps...

Matt.