A Study On The Variant Comparative Form Of English Adjectives

Adjectives occupy a large amount in English vocabularies,the two comparative forms of English adjectives,namely the synthetic form and the analytic form are widely used in language appliance.According to the traditional grammar,generally,it is considered that the number of syllables is the main factor that determines the comparative form of an adjective.However,through observation,some disyllabic adjectives end with-y,-le,-ow,-ure take the synthetic form while others end with-ful,-less,-ive,-ing,-ed,-ous take the analytic form.Besides,some disyllabic adjectives can choose both of the two forms,such as friendlier vs.more friendly.And there are some adjectives which adopt the irregular forms to construct comparatives,such as good-better.In addition,when add un-to some disyllabic adjectives which take the synthetic form,the newly formed trisyllabic adjectives still take the synthetic form.Therefore,it is obvious that the traditional approach which relies on the number of syllables to analyze the comparative form of an adjective is not complete,it breaks the dichotomous principle since number of syllables is just an external form.Based on that,following the thought of syntactic structure hierarchical all the way down,this paper tries to analyze the variant forms of the comparative form of English adjectives and the generative mechanisms under the framework of Distributed Morphology,namely having an analysis form the internal structure of words.The paper explains the special phenomenon existing in the comparative form of English adjectives,which can not be explained by the traditional grammar rules,and then concludes it is what factor that determines the choice between synthetic and analytic form.Through study,it is discovered that in the generative mechanism of synthetic form,the comparative structure of the adjective must have two hierarchical levels with the adjective belongs to a Root Cycle,while in that of analytic form,there must be at least three levels with the adjective belongs to an Outer Cycle.Disyllabic adjectives end with-y,-le,-ow and those end with-ful,-less,-ish have different hierarchy structures,the difference of the structures then cause the variant comparative forms.In fact,those irregular adjectives are root directly derived in essence,however,there is a root changing process in the formation of their comparative forms.As for the alternate use of some disyllabic adjectives between synthetic form and analytic form,it is noticed that there are two kinds of alternation.Besides,it has been discovered that in the adjectives,such as unhappy,the prefix un-just works as a particle which does not influence the comparative form of the adjective.To sum up,the paper finds the basis for the explanation of the regulation of comparatives,we can not simply determine their comparative form according to the number of syllables,instead,it is supposed to consider the internal structure of the adjective.