ibil de inteligenta pentru acel barbat. (p.32) analyse the sentence we can do the following analysis: words are grouped into lower constituents. For example incredibly modifies intelligent, so the sequence incredibly intelligent is a phrasal constituent of the sentence. Also, following the analysis, 'this modifies woman laquo ;, so the sequence this woman forms a single structural unit, a constituent of the sentence. The same happens in the sequence that man. But furthermore also the sequence to that man is another constituent. To the transformational grammar, the phrases incredibly intelligent and to that man both modify seem, then the whole sequence seem incredibly intelligent to that teacher is also a constituent.
B) Positive degree
The positive degree of an adjective or adverb is in its simple form. It is used to denote or say the mere existence of some quality of what we speak about. It is used when no comparison is made. We have found a lot of positive degrees in the book under study. This degree is used to make a description of peoples, things or phenomena in the book.next thing is, to get into that beautiful garden. (p.53) trebuie s? ajung? n acea gr? din? minunat?. (p.54) this example we observe that no comparison is made. The adjective beautiful is used just to describe the place were the characters are. An interesting thing in this example is that the Romanian variant of beautiful is not frumoasa, as we used to think, but minunata. I consider that the beauty of that garden was emphasized by means of adjective minunata, which is considered to show a higher level of beauty.
Beautiful, beautiful soup! (p.43)
Minunat? , minunat? s up ?! (p.43) we speak from the stylistic point of view, we observe that the author used repetition to emphasize the feelings the character is feeling when eating such a beautiful soup. In this example the adjective is used with the meaning of lovely, special.was a large mushroom growing near her. (p.35) o ciuperc? mare care cre? tea aproape de ea. (p.35) in the examples above, the positive degree is used to make a description of things. It is used to denote the mere existence of some quality of what the author speaks about. It is used when no comparison is made. The adjective large is used in its simple form, without any suffix.same goes in the following example: seemed to her a good opportunity for making her escape. (p.4) ip? ru o bun? ocazie de a scapa. (p.4)
In this case we observe a maximum parallelism between source text and target one. The level of equivalence is the highest one. The linguistic units good opportunity and o buna ocazie have one and the same meaning, both in English and Romanian.
C) Comparative degree
The comparative degree of an adjective or adverb denotes more degree of the quality than the positive degree, and is used when two persons, animals or things, or two sets/groups of persons, animals or things are compared with one another.am older than you, and must know better. (p. 43) mai b? tr? n dec? t tine? i? tiu mai bine. (p. 43) we have two persons and the comparison is made to show that one is more in the quality of being old than the other. The word than is the conjunction we must use in the comparative degree.examples from the book, with the comparative degree are: means to make anything prettier. (p. 33)
? nseamna a face ceva mai frumos. (p.33) English and Romanian variants of the same example, here we could say that we observe a very close coincidence on the semantic level., on the formal level the synthetic forms are not used in Romanian. The comparative degree both in English and Romanian denotes more degree of the quality than the positive degree.
« Curiouser and curiouser !» she cried (she was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). (p.59)
Since syntactical forms of degrees of comparison of adjectives are characteristic only for monosyllabic and few polysyllabic adjectives, violation from this rule can have a stylistic function. In the above example the word curiouser amuses the reader and at the same time gives away the nervousness of the heroine, which is accentuated in the author s commentaries.
