Analytical comparison was, and is still, looking for something to serve for the comparison of languages ??of totally different families, for some kind of abstract features and peculiarities. They must be regarded as similar or even identical in spite of the fact that the languages, which are assumed to share these properties, have no genetic ties at present, and have never had in the past. The confrontational comparison has the advantage over comparative philology of being able to suggest a method, which would be applicable to all languages, irrespective of their history or possible genetic relationship., In the widest sense of the word, is ruled out unless those carrying it out are convinced that there does exist a certain fundamental similarity between the two or more objects under investigation. If there were no underlying assumptions that all languages ??have something in common, the problem of confrontation simply would not exist.
2.3 The category of comparison in English and Romanian
The category of comparison has historically changed in both languages. The reduction of the morphological paradigm in English led to the obliteration of the grammatical categories of gender, number and case. In Romanian grammatical gender and number have been preserved. The marked and unmarked categorical forms of positive, comparative and superlative degrees are expressed in English synthetically, analytically and suppletivelly. Historically the synthetic forms were used in Old English and the analytical ones appeared as a system in the Middle English, when the periphrastic comparative forms, only occasionally used in Old English, began to be substituted (under French influence) by analytical forms with ma, mo, mare, more, mast, most , which were used both with English and French adjectives, with monosyllables and disyllables, as well as with polysyllables. The preference of these over synthetic forms may in some cases be stylistic.absolute superlative (most + positive form) may have appeared under the influence of Latin (You are most kind). It is known that in Latin the degrees of comparison were formed synthetically. But even in the classic Latin a number of adjectives existed which formed the degrees of comparison analytically. In the V and VI centuries the analytical forms started to substitute the synthetic ones. Magis and plus were used to form the comparative degrees, and maxime, super, valde, bene were used to form the superlative. In Old Latin the comparison of the adjective by means of magis became a grammatical way in Iberia, the South of Galia and the Danube basin. The adverb plus was also used in forming the comparative degree, but it was not widely spread being used only in the Northern part of Galia. The superlative was formed by means of maxime and multum. In the Oriental Romance languages ??the forms magis dulce turned into mai dulce - cel mai dulce. Besides that other comparative constructions appeared : tot atit de bun, mai putin bun, prea bun, foarte bun, extreme de bun, etc.linguists affirm that the positive degree should not be considered as part of the category of comparison. Here we should say that there exist an opposition of marked (superlative and comparative degrees) and the unmarked (the positive degree) categorical forms. Even within the positive degree we can compare lexically and contextually :: This apple is sweet and that one is sour .: This apple is sweeter than that one.apple is less sweet than this one.apple is not so sweet as this one.apple is < b align="justify"> sourer than this one.means that we taste the two apples and compare them on the same level. While when we say that the apple is sweeter/sourer or the sweetest we compare in the limits of the same adjective and quality. Some linguists affirm that the positive degree should not be considered as part of the category of comparison, but it is one of the three categorical forms of comparison, the unmarked one.degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are usually considered to be part of the corresponding grammatical categories. The synthetic forms express comparison purely grammatically. When we turn to the analytical forms the picture is different. More and most which regularly are used to form the analytical degrees of comparison, being elements of the given analytical forms, have partially preserved their original lexica...
