Re: Comparison of adjectives (was Re: Reviving an old tradition)

In designing the revision to Ithkuil (called Ilaksh), I have expanded the
morphology of comaratives significantly, based on my discovery of how
complicated and semantically ambiguous comparatives really are in natural
languages, as illustrated in an ambiguous sentence like "She is healthier."
   Consider how many meanings this can have:

She is healthier [than she was previously, but she is still ill.]

She is healthier [then anyone else here]

She is healthier [and so is now healthy whereas previously she was not]

She is healthier [she was healthy before and is now even more so]

Another example:

He sings better. ( = than he did before because he recovered from a cold,
even though he still doesn’t sing very well.)

He sings better. ( = than his friend does, even though neither one sings
very well)

He sings better. ( = than he did before because he’s taken voice lessons and
now sings well, whereas before he sang terribly)

He sings better ( = has improved through voice lessons and now sings very
well, even though he sang fairly well before).

Thus we see that the simple 3-way comparison of X, X-er, and X-est (or 4-way
if you add in the equative form “A is as X as B”) must cover a range of at
least half a dozen or more semantic interpretations.

There is also a semantic division between absolute value of a quality (i.e.,
the statement is true regardless of one’s knowledge or contextal point of
view) versus relative value of a quality (i.e., the truthfulness of the
statement depends on the context or point of view:


SENTENCES WITHIN CONTEXT OF ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS

Light A is bright.

Light B is brighter.  ( = than A)

Light B is brighter.  ( = than it used to be, even though it’s less bright
than A)

Light B is brightest.  ( = compared to A and B)

Light B is (at its) brightest.  ( = at its maximum degree of brightness,
even though it’s less bright than A)

Light B is (at its) brightest.  ( = that it can be, even though it’s less
bright than B, but brighter than A).


ABSOLUTE VS.  RELATIVE BRIGHTNESS

Acturus is a bright star.  (ABSOLUTE = null due to standard benchmark of
scale not defined.  RELATIVE = true.)

Alpha Centauri is a brighter star (than Arcturus).  (ABSOLUTE = false;
RELATIVE = true)

Alpha Centauri is a brighter star (than it used to be).  (ABSOLUTE = false?
 RELATIVE = depends on context, e.g., to me it’s brighter than it was last
month because I just had cataract-removal surgery = true, however, it’s
brighter than it was last month because I contend it is so = false)

Sirius is the brightest star (of all).  (ABSOLUTE = false; RELATIVE =
depends on viewpoint, e.g., if looking from Earth = TRUE; however, looking
from a point in space other than Earth = depends = no way to assert truth or
falsity of this statement by itself without providing exact viewpoint
coordinates = does this mean this sentence should be considered
ungrammatical or cognitively insufficient in a logical language?)

The Sun is the brightest star (of all).  (ABSOLUTE = false, RELATIVE = [same
as above sentence] )

Sirius is the brightest star (compared to Arcturus and Alpha Centauri).
(ABSOLUTE = true, RELATIVE = true)

The Sun is the brightest star (compared to Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and
Sirius).  (ABSOLUTE = false, RELATIVE = true)

As a result of all this, Ilaksh has 18 different comparative schemas (nine
relative and nine absolute), which I call Levels.  These Levels describe the
comparative state of noun/adjective/verb A which in turn operate in
conjunction with 24 new noun cases to specify the exact status of the
"other" referent B (as in a sentence A is X'er than B, or A X's more than B,
or A is more X than B).

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