Re: Degrees of comparation

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> I recently realized that from an internal POW, it'd make a lot of sense for
> Tairezazh to have "negative" degrees of comparation, that is inflections
> signifying "less" and "least". So, taking _dair_ "beautiful" as example, the
> full range of comparation 'd be:
>
> tshedair    most beautiful
> dadair      more beautiful
> dair        beautiful
> medair      less beautiful
> sizdair     least beautiful
>
> (All to be stressed on the _ai_)
>
> Are there any natlangs with a similar system?
Not that I know of, but Degaspregos has such a system:

    akas "sharp"
       akastas  (-st-)     =     "sharpest"     (positive superlative)
       akaras   (-r-)       =     "sharper"      (positive comparative)
       akas     (-)           =     "sharp"         (finite state)
       akapras  (-pr-)    =     "less sharp"   (negative comparative)
       akapstas (-pst-)   =     "least sharp" (negative superlative)

One obvious defect of D's system is that the negatives are fairly
transparently based on the morphology of the positives, even though
there is no real reason that it has to be that way.    It would be interesting
to have a language where the negative degrees are morphological, while the
positives are analytic.  I might do that with Phaleran, in fact, which has no
pretensions at universality.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos