A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

198 Chapter 12 Grade and comparison

functioning as determiner in NP structure in [i] and [ii], and as an adjunct of degree

15 Information packaging in the clause

Correspondence between the grades is complicated by the fact that the plain forms

much (and to a lesser extent many) are non-affirmative items. This is why negative

clauses are used in the [a] examples of [8]; it is not normal in present-day English to

say, for example, *We have much time or *We enjoyed it much (see Ch. 8, §4).

(b) More as adverb

[9] i a. It 's expensive.

ii a. She behaved tactfully.

b. It's more expensive than I expected.

b. She behaved more tactfully than her son.

Here more is an adverb. In [i] it modifies the adjective expensive; in [ii] it modifies

the adverb tactfully. It is a marker of the comparative grade. The crucial difference

between [9] and [8] is that there is no much or many in the plain grade version in [9].

Most

The same distinction applies with most, though here we have an additional, non­

superlative, sense of the adverb (shown in [lOiiib D, where it means "extremely" or

"very":

[10] a. He didn 't make many mistakes. b. He made the most mistakes.

11 a. It 's expensive.

1Il a. I fo und her helolul.

b. It 's the most expensive of them all.

b. I fo und her most helpfu l.

In rib], most is a determinative -the superlative form of many.

In [iib], it is an adverb, marking the superlative grade of expensive.

In [iiib], again it's an adverb, but it isn't a marker of superlative grade. There's no

explicit comparison between members of a set: most just indicates a high degree.

3 Less and least

The words less and least similarly belong to both the determinative and

adverb classes. As determinatives they are inflectional forms of little; as adverbs

they function as degree modifiers. These examples illustrate for the comparative:

[11] i a. It has little value.

ii a. It's expensive.

iii a. She behaved tactfully.

b. It has less value than he claimed.

b. It's less expensive than I expected.

b. She behaved less tactfully than her son.

In rib] the determinative less has the same function, determiner, as little in [ia].

In [iib-iiib] the degree adverb less is added as modifier to an adjective or adverb.

(a) The determinative less

As a determinative, less is syntactically quite similar to its opposite more, but there
are also significant differences. More is the comparative form of both many and