| 词组 | absolute comparative |
| 释义 | absolute comparative The absolute comparative is the comparative form of an adjective used where the positive might be expected; either no comparison at all is implied, or no comparison is overtly stated although it may be inferred by the reader or hearer. The second of these types is also called incomplete comparison. Except for a few familiar fixed phrases that are clearly of the first type—higher education, higher learning, the greater Boston area, better stores everywhere, the younger generation, the finer things in life—the two varieties of the absolute comparative are difficult to distinguish, and perhaps need not be distinguished for practical purposes. The following examples of older should suffice to make the point: • ... the way to teach rhetoric to older young people —Ruth G. Strickland, in The Range of English, 1968 • ... when even the older girls are new to the organization —Mabel A. Hammersmith, Girl Scout Leader, January 1968 • Starting independent study for older students, who are most prepared for it —Arno Karlen, Change, July-August 1969 • The age of the counselors is another factor in controlling applicants, especially older, professionally-trained ones —Thomas M. Martinez, Trans-Action, March 1968 • The constant counterpoint of this search has been an awareness of the older traditions of Europe —Current Biography, December 1964 • ... disciplinary notions and forms were taken over from the past and from the most prestigious of the older universities —Norman Birnbaum, Change, July-August 1969 The absolute comparative is a favorite device of advertisers, who for various reasons prefer to leave the comparisons implied in "a brighter smile," "a new lovelier you," or "higher mileage" up to the perceptions of the consumer. With terms relating to age, the comparative form is often more polite than the positive: • ... a book dealer who is loved by an older woman —Current Biography, June 1966 • ... an Institute for Retired Professionals, allowing older people to putter around in their own courses —J. Kirk Sale, Change, July-August 1969 For some reason "an older woman" or "an older man" seems younger than "an old woman" or "an old man." Bryant 1962 concludes that both forms of the absolute comparative are used in informal standard English, but a number of the fixed phrases and other conventional forms occur in English of any level of formality: • ... what physiologists term a consensus, similar to that existing among the various organs and functions of the physical frame of man and the more perfect animals —John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, 1843 |
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