| 词组 | double comparison |
| 释义 | double comparison Double comparison consists chiefly of the use of more or most with an adjective already inflected for the comparative or superlative degree. Lamberts 1972 observes that besides marking the comparative and superlative, more and most were used as intensives long before Shakespeare's time. This use is still with us: when we say to our host or hostess, "That was a most enjoyable meal," we are using most as an intensive, in much the same way as we might use very. Back in the 14th century more and most came to be used in intensive function with adjectives already inflected for comparative and superlative. OED evidence suggests that the practice continued from the 14th through the 17th centuries. It was common in Lord Berners' translation of Froissart and fairly frequent in Shakespeare's plays; it also occurred in the King James version of the Bible. Some examples: • ... he took new councillors of the most noblest and sagest persons of his realm —Lord Berners, translation of Froissart's Chronicles, 1523 • More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous — Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, 1595 • How much more elder art thou than thy looks! — Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 1597 • This was the most unkindest cut of all —Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1600 • But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it — Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1601 • ... that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee —Acts 25:5 (AV), 1611 The OED evidence for this use of more and most suggests a marked decline after the 17th century. Part of the decline can be attributed to the attack mounted against the construction by the 18th-century grammarians, beginning with Lowth in 1762. "Double comparatives and superlatives are improper," says he, and sets out Shakespeare and the translators of the book of Acts, cited above, for correction. The bishop, however, could not bring himself to condemn "most highest" applied to God in an old translation of the Psalms; he found that the phrase had "a singular propriety." Priestley, who was not a bishop, was not diffident about criticizing this construction in his revised edition of 1798 nor was Lindley Murray 1795. And by the middle of the 19th century, Goold Brown felt no compunction about telling Shakespeare and King James's translators what they should have written. Lindley Murray based his grammar on that of Lowth, Priestley, and others. It was widely used as a school grammar, and widely imitated by other writers of school grammars. So the strictures on the double comparative and double superlative became part of every school-child's lessons—and they still are. The result has been that double comparison has pretty much vanished from standard writing. The OED found a "more lovelier" in Tennyson, and Hall 1917 a "most dimmest" in Swinburne, but such examples are hard to find and, when found, often prove to be allusions to older literary use. Double comparison does, however, linger in speech and in such familiar writing as letters—wherever it may serve some specified purpose. The television weatherman who in March 1980 spoke of the "least snowiest winter" perhaps did so inadvertently. But Lewis Carroll could write on purpose in a letter to a child • ... and of all that race none is more ungratefuller, more worser — 13 Mar. 1869 The actress Ellen Terry used double superlatives with some frequency in her letters: • ... I must yet ask you to take my very bestest thanks —29 June 1892 The last two examples show double comparison by inflection. Americans have been conscious of this possibility at least since Nathan Bedford Forrest was reputed to have said, "Git thar fustest with the mostest." Formations such as first est, mostest, and bestest are perhaps most typical of the speech of young children before they are influenced by school and the language of their peers. The best-attested of all the inflectional double comparatives and superlatives seems to be worser. The evidence in the OED shows it to have been very common in the 16th and 17th centuries; Shakespeare used it many times, for instance. Use dropped off in the 18th and 19th centuries; here again we are probably seeing some of the effect of the 18th-century grammarians and their successors. Some examples of worser from its heyday: • Were my state far worser than it is, I would not wed her —Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, 1594 • I cannot hate thee worser than I do —Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1607 But to divert myself in doing this, • From worser thoughts, which make me do amiss—John Bunyan, "Author's Apology," The Pilgrim's Progress, 1678 By the middle of the 19th century, novelists such as Dickens and Thackeray were putting worser into the mouths of their least-educated characters. But it could still be found in the speech and familiar writing of the educated: • To begin with, perhaps, if I were a better man, I might feel inclined to become a clergyman. But as I'm very much a worser man, we'll count that out — Henry Adams, letter, 9 Feb. 1859 Worser has become archaic from the standpoint of literature, but it still persists in speech, especially among the less educated. The hostility of the grammarians since the 18th century has essentially eliminated double comparison as a method of emphasis in standard written English. See also lesser, considered by some to be a double comparative. |
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