Re: Comparison Terminology

On Wed, 28 Feb 2001 12:31:18 -0800, Matt Pearson <pearson@...>
wrote:
>Jeff Jones wrote:
>
>> 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
>
> (A) is usually called the "subject of comparison" and
I got that one right! (in a description I've been writing -- it wasn't in
my post of course)

> (B) is usually called the "standard of comparison".
I was using that term for something else in my description, but this usage
makes more sense.

> 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'.
You're right about my lumping two things together here, although I *had*
come up with "direction" for more/less/equal, so I'm glad to see someone
using "directionality". And "scale" fills a terminological hole.

> 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).
This component is something I hadn't thought about very much, yet. I had
been considering using "degree" for something like slightly more vs. more
vs. a lot more.

> Hope that helps...
>
> Matt.
Thanks, it helps a lot!!!
Standard terminology is one of my weak points.

Jeff

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