UNIT 14.

EXPRESSION OF QUALITY, DEGREE AND

COMPARISON.
In this unit we are going to look at expression of quality, degree and
comparison.
In everyday life, we need to explain how something is, to what extend it
is, and how it compares with others. So these are essential areas for our
students because without an adequate command of how to perform them,
the students will not be able to partake in many forms of discussions.
The information has been taken from Greenbaum and Quirk. A more
detailed list of references will be given at the end of this unit.
In order to talk about the characteristics of an object or a person, we need
to use some form of description, either a modifier or a complement of
some type. When we do this, we attribute a quality to the item that we are
discussing.
The first part we are going to discuss is adjectives. This is due to the fact
that we can find adjectives in both modifiers and complements, and
therefore they are the most common way to qualify a word.
Adjectives are used when we want to give more information about
something. They generally appear before the noun and they tell us an
added quality about the thing that we are describing, for example: the
kind man who lives next door gives us more information than if we
simply said: the man who lives next door.
Four features are commonly considered to be the characteristics of
adjectives:
1- They can occur freely in ATTRIBUTIVE function, in other words
they can premodify a noun, appearing between the determiner and
the noun: A stupid man A green wall
2- They can also freely occur in PREDICATIVE function, they can
function as either subject or object complements:
Subject complement: This man is stupid.
Object complement: He thought the man to be stupid.
3- They can be modified by the intensifier VERY: The man is very
stupid
4- They can take COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE forms. The
comparison maybe made by means of inflections.
Er: happier

Est: happiest
Or by addition of more and most (periphrastic comparison):
More intelligent
Most intelligent
The types of adjectives fall into two main categories: Qualitative and
classifying.
Qualitative adjectives are used to indicate qualities, as the name
suggests. For example: It was a beautiful morning Here a positive
quality is given to the morning.
Classifying adjectives denote the group to which the noun belongs.
For example: Freshwater fish; Double-decker buses; Four-lane roads
Students also need to be taught the order of adjectives. Normally we
would follow the order Qualitative- Colour- Classifying as can be seen
in the following example: The big black metal gate
Adjectives can also be used as modifiers. In this section we can find
pre-modifiers and post-modifiers. We will begin with the premodifiers.
Pre-modifiers come before the word that they modify. These include
attributive adjectives such as: We had a lovely time.
Present participles: The leaning tower of Pisa The laughing cow
The dancing bear
Past participles: He was pleased with the finished product
Nouns can act as pre-modifiers, as in the following example: Milk
production is down this year Spiderman films are very popular at
the moment
Adverbs can be used to either pre-modify an adjective: The
description was remarkably accurate or another adverb.
Post-modifiers come after the word that they modify.
Some post-modifiers complete what is implied in the meaning of the
adjective.
A few adjectives must have a post modifier Mary is fond of us
Finally in this section we will have a brief look at complements:
In order to qualify a noun it is possible to use a link verb. For
example: He looks English or This way of life is exciting
These are just some of the ways that can be used to express quality.
Naturally there are others that we have not considered due to the limits
of time.

Now, were going to look at the expression of degree. Here we refer to

gradable words, to be gradable they have to fit on to a scale.
Adjectives of quality are typically gradable. We use intensifiers to
indicate the point on the scale. The most common intensifier of
adjectives is the adverb VERY. Other examples of intensifiers: fairly,
pretty, rather, entirely, incredibly, too.
There are two types of adverbs of degree: amplification and
diminution. We can also express degree through a lexical scale: drop,
puddle, pond, lake, sea, ocean.
With comparison we can use adjectives and adverbs in three different
ways: