| 词组 | implicit comparative |
| 释义 | implicit comparative We are indebted to Quirk et al. 1985 for the name of this topic. Implicit comparatives make up a small group of words which were comparative adjectives in Latin and have come to be used in English in some of the ways that true English comparatives are. According to Quirk, "they are not true comparatives in English, since they cannot be used in comparative constructions with than as explicit basis of comparison." The implicit comparatives are comparative not so much through syntax as through meaning. In some cases, though, the comparative meaning affects the syntax. Minor, major, inferior, and superior, for example, are apparently perceived as having more absolutely comparative connotations than junior and senior: of these six adjectives, only junior and senior are regularly used with more and most: • When a more junior man leaves, does it make any difference? —Elizabeth Drew, Atlantic, August 1970 • The more senior the officer, the more time he has — George S. Patton, War as I Knew It, 1947 • ... power and prestige for even the most junior Congressmen —Gerald R. Rosen, Dun's, October 1971 • Tribute should be paid here to certain of our most senior colleagues —Professional Geographer, March 1949 Usage commentators generally cover this difference not by discussing implicit comparison but by proclaiming that more should not be used with major, inferior, or superior while ignoring junior and senior. A further indication of the idiosyncratic nature of implied comparatives shows up in the following two citations for senior: • Durbrow, the Minister-Counselor, is next senior to Ambassador Smith —Leslie C. Stevens, Atlantic, August 1953 • Diana Cartier, a somewhat more senior performer than the others —Walter Terry, Saturday Rev., 6 Nov. 1971 In the passage by Stevens, senior follows next (a position normally occupied by a superlative but sometimes by a comparative) and is followed, as Quirk describes, by to. In the one by Terry, senior follows more (a construction that normally calls for a positive adjective) and, with its comparative connotation thus negated, is followed by than. Both sentences sound idiomatic; the hybrid nature of this implicit comparative makes it versatile enough to adapt to the demands of its context. Other constructions are normally reserved for positive adjectives but are not as strong markers of comparison as more is. With these, the various implicit comparatives occur more indiscriminately. • ... too much concentration on the anatomy and physical functions of very inferior bodies and too little on ... the novel itself —Oscar Cargill, in The Range of English, 1968 • Pop music may be a very minor art form —Paul Hofmann, N.Y. Times, 22 Apr. 1973 • He thought a cave a very superior kind of house — WillaCather, O Pioneers!, 1913 • ... I had served under him as a very junior officer —Sumner Welles, Seven Decisions That Shaped History, 1950 • Should Venturi and Rauch have been asked to design so major an effort? —Thomas B. Hess, New York, 5 Apr. 1976 • ... he is young for so senior a post —William Rids-dale, London Calling, 14 Apr. 1955 • ... so inferior that they are afraid of criticism —Sinclair Lewis, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, revised, 1931 • "We were trying to be too superior " —Ellen Glasgow, They Stooped to Folly, 1929 • ... as minor as a program formulated by a single foreman —Harold Koontz & Cyril O'Donnell, Principles of Management, 1955 • ... there is such a major drive to get the Chinese Communists into the U.N. —U.S. News & World Report, 16 July 1954 See also inferior, superior; major. |
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