An Analysis Of Synthetic And Analytic Comparative Formation In English

It is well known that English adjectives can form the comparative in two ways,namely as a synthetic comparative (e.g. bigger) or an analytic comparative (e.g. moreenthusiastic). The main factor governing the choice of the two variants that isconventionally acknowledged is the number of syllables and the final segment of theadjective. Monosyllabic and disyllabic adjectives ending in–y and–ow normally takethe synthetic form–er, while trisyllabic or longer adjectives can only take the analyticform more. However, the actual application of the comparative form is far morecomplicated, and has drawn the attention of many scholars.This paper approaches this issue from a diachronic as well as synchronicperspective. This paper examines previous scholars’ studies and uses data collectedfrom Google Books Ngram Viewer. Synchronically speaking, this paper analyzes thedata and the comparative formation of a number of selected monosyllabic, disyllabicand trisyllabic adjectives, in the hope of analyzing their comparative formation inpresent-day English usage.Besides the factors mentioned above, such as number of syllables and finalsegment, this paper also approaches this topic from a morpho-phonologicalperspective, also taking into account syntactic position (attributive or predicative),frequency of the positive form, gradability of adjectives, and origin of adjectives(foreign or native), resulting in a more comprehensive view of the linguisticmechanism and motivation behind adjective comparative formation.