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Part 4 - Adjectives: Problems with Comparatives
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Part 4 Adjectives: Problems with Comparatives Competition among Alternative Comparitive Forms Q. Of the two textbooks in my lap, one says that “simple (comparative) forms MUST be used whenever the comparative expressions are predicatives” (B. Rifkin. Грамматика в контексте, p. 198), while the other says that “both simple compara-‐‑ tives and compound comparatives are used as predicate adjectives” (O. Kagan/F. Miller. В пути, p. 273). Am I correct in believing the latter version? Can’t you in fact say either эта книга интереснее той, or эта книга более интересная, чем та? Textbooks always give lists of simple comparative forms ending in -‐‑ее, implying that basically any adjectives that don’t form their comparative through a consonant mutation and -‐‑e, and that don’t end in -‐‑ский, will take this ending. Some of the forms on these lists, though, sound pretty strange — горячее, ужаснее, свежее, интеллигентнее, and симпатичнее — and in each case I wonder whether the compound forms with более wouldn’t be preferable. Maybe some of this has to do with the number of syllables (does it sound funny, for example, to say независимее or однороднее? — though you can say предпочтительнее). A. As for the definitions, both textbooks (B. Rifkin. Грамматика в контексте, McGraw-‐‑Hill, 1996 and O. Kagan, F. Miller. В пути, Prentice Hall, 1996) are correct. This reminds me of an old Russian-‐‑Jewish joke where the rabbi pro-‐‑ claims that two people having an argument are both right (and if you think that’s impossible, you are also right). Rifkin is right because he formulated his rule based on his examples: В Мурманске холоднее, чем в Москве. ‘It is colder in Murmansk than in Moscow.’ «Война и мир» интереснее, чем «Анна Каренина» с точки зрения философии истории Толстого. ‘War and Peace is more interesting than Anna Karenina from the point of view of Tolstoy’s philosophy.’ 126 What You Always Wanted to Know about Russian Grammar Озеро Байкал глубже озера Онтарио. ‘Lake Baikal is deeper than Lake Ontario.’ In Rifkin’s examples, substitution is impossible. All of his examples are names and titles, and the question of their gender would make anyone’s life very difficult: What gender is «Война и мир»? Озеро Байкал should be neuter, even though Байкал must be masculine. But what if it were compared to река Урал? Мурманск is definitely masculine, but the example had в Мурманске as opposed to в Москве, which actually calls for an adverb, and the compound comparatives for adverbs are awkward in such simple sen-‐‑ tences. Kagan & Miller are right based on their examples: Её работа более интересная. Её работа интереснее. ‘Her work is more interesting.’ Этот ресторан дороже. Этот ресторан более дорогой. ‘This restaurant is more expensive.’ Kagan & Miller’s examples are absolute: there is no second item ex-‐‑ pressed for comparison. Such examples with the long form are quite rare. Here is one similar example: А главное, с каждым разом казался ей Кораблёв всё более глупым. (И. Грекова. Хозяйка гостиницы) ‘And the main thing is that each time Korablev seemed more stupid to her.’ However, here one could also say казался всё глупее. Having exonerated the authors of both textbooks, one could only wish that their definitions were not so general as to not give any guidance of the restrictions. First, let us examine the limitations of the short form formation. Шелякин1 lists several morphological reasons that preclude the formation of the simple comparative: the suffixes -‐‑ск-‐‑ (братский, комический), -‐‑оньк-‐‑ / -‐‑еньк-‐‑ (слабенький, сухонький), -‐‑л-‐‑ (гнилой, вялый), -‐‑ов-‐‑ (боевой, деловой), some adjectives with the suffix -‐‑н-‐‑ (кровный, больной, лишний, ранний), -‐‑ат-‐‑ (бородатый, седоватый), compound adjectives 1 Шелякин М. А. Справочник по русской грамматике. 2-‐‑е изд. М, «Русский язык» 2000: 85. [18.218.129.100] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 04:34 GMT) 4. Adjectives: Problems with Comparatives 127 (длиннорукий, тугоухий), and those with the prefix не-‐‑ (недобрый, непростой). Adjectives that cannot have a degree of manifestation of the quality also do not have a comparative form: босой ‘bare-‐‑foot’, голый ‘naked’, женатый ‘married’, живой ‘alive’ and others. КРГ2 in addition mentions adjectives which are participial in their origin, that is those with the suffixes -‐‑щ-‐‑ and -‐‑(в)ш-‐‑, e.g., выдающийся ‘outstanding’, бывший ‘former’, увядший ‘wilted’. And finally, the adjectives in velars (-‐‑к-‐‑ /-‐‑х-‐‑, not only in -‐‑ск-‐‑) tend to use long forms even in those cases when the short form either still exists (гибче — более гибкий) or existed quite recently, namely when Д. Н. Ушаков pub-‐‑ lished «Толковый словарь русского языка» (1934-‐‑1940), for example, ветхий, ходкий, мерзкий. The list of -‐‑к-‐‑ adjectives is very long and includes робкий, меткий, громоздкий, ломкий, цепкий, стойкий and many others. In case of резкий and especially жуткий the long form is by far more com-‐‑ mon. Here we are witnessing a change in common usage. However, as ad-‐‑ verbs резче and жутче are still quite common. On the other hand, Sheljakin’s rule regarding adjectives with the prefix не-‐‑ should not be followed rigidly; there are instances where adjectives with the prefix не-‐‑ form a comparative form, particularly in those cases where the adjective with and without не-‐‑ are not functional antonyms: независимое поведение ‘independent behavior’ ~ ?зависимое поведение ‘dependent be-‐‑ havior’. Но чем больше у нас будет внутренне независимых людей, тем независимее будет Россия. ‘The greater number of innerly independent people we have, the more independent Russia will be.’ As far as the length of the words is concerned, the number of syllables is not a precondition in Russian, unlike in English. At the same time it is very difficult to find non-‐‑compound adjectives that can have a comparative that would be longer than five syllables: безапелляционный (7), непредсказуемый (6), невыразительный (6) are...
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