them., We decided to pay attention to the frequency of using degrees of comparison in a concrete literary work. To have a concrete demonstration of the ideas I have written before, we have selected a chapter from the book Great expectations by Charles Dickens and I have read it with special attention. First of all, I looked for degrees of comparison and, after counting the number of all types of degrees of comparison used in the first chapter of the book mentioned above, I have made a chart with all the examples I have found.
Types of Degrees of ComparisonExamples from Chapter IPercentage (%) Null comparative2016Positive3424Comparative2317Superlative1310Intensifiers1915Irregulars2418Total120100
To illustrate the frequency of using degrees of comparison, we decided that it should be better to do this with the help of a diagram which is more concrete and more helpful in our case.
In this numerical diagram we can see that the most used degree is the positive degree and we consider that it is the most used degree of comparison in general, both in colloquial and literary language. It goes without saying that when we want to describe a thing, a person or a phenomenon itself, when we want o say more about their characteristics, age, colour, size, shape, in the majority of cases we use adjective in positive degree. In this case we can see the relationship between the adjectives and the noun to which it applies. In order to uncover the nature of the adjective, we must be familiar with both the denotation of the adjective and with its relation to the noun it qualifies.
Adjectives and adverbs with irregular degrees of comparison take the second place as concerning the frequency of using such constructions.
Now, it does not require a profound analysis to see that, in spite that there are some adjectives that form the degrees of comparison in an irregular way, they occupy the second place.
We use the comparative degree of adjectives when we want to emphasize that an object is superior compared to the other.
The use of more comparison will result in the descriptive richness of the text, whereas a lack of them may result in descriptive sparseness or thinness. The second goes null comparative, as Lewis Carol uses a lot of unique things that can not be compared. The positive is the third, as adjectives may make the style of the text ornate (or flowery), and slow down the action in the text. The superlative is less used as the author think that there are few things that can be put at superlative., Analyzing the things said above, we can conclude the following things:
The use of comparatives shows the interest the text has in relating the qualities of something to those of another thing.
The degrees of comparison convey the degree of expressiveness produced by the adjective of indication and so, it is very close to the stylistic category of expressiveness.
CONCLUSION
English grammar has been built over millennia in an eclectic fashion from a wide variety of grammars, mostly from Europe. Words assimilated from other parts of the world during the British Empire stage are shaped to fit into the established grammar.
The purpose of this diploma paper that was to show the differences between the use of the English degrees of comparison and Romanian one in different contexts was achieved. Without knowing the function of the degrees of comparison, the non-native English speakers face many difficulties in communicating their ideas in an accurate form.
What we have learnt about adjectives is that most English adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. These are generally constructed in one of two ways: either by suffixes (big, bigger, biggest) or by the use of the grammatical particles more and most. Speaking about stylistic functions of adjectives and their degrees of comparison we have learnt that the main functions of adjectives is to give more expressive description to the entities found in a text; so, the use of more adjectives will result in the descriptive richness of the text, whereas a lack of them may result in descriptive sparseness or thinness. A lot of adjectives may, however, make the style of the text ornate (or flowery), and slow down the action in the text. We have also learnt that adjectives may have a humorous effect on the reader. Now we can understand why so many authors and writers use such a great amount of adjectives in their works. They do it because their aim is to instill a certain attitude to the article or book into a reader. We have also learnt such nicety which will help us to make our speech much m...
