Page 232 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

218 CHAPTER 9
Nongradable adjectives refer to everything-or-nothing qualities of nouns (either you are total or you are not). For the same reason, nongradable adjectives cannot be used with the intensifying adverb very or have sentence predicate functions (and occur after linkingverbs). For example,
*The new project is more potential/main and very right/principal.
COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE DEGREEOF ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS IN ACADEMIC WRITING
Comparative and superlative degree adjectives have the function of com- paring nouns (e.g., bigdifference—bigger difference). Comparative/superlative degree constructions can have a small number of syntactic constructions, of which three are prevalent in academic writing:
1. Comparative/superlative degree forms with the markers -er/est
2. Phrasal comparatives with more/most (e.g., more/most complex) 3. Structures with comparative clauses than and as ... as:
The report is longer than I expected [it to be]. Thepricesforcommoditiesare(not) ashighasanalystspredicted[themtobe].
Formonosyllabicadjectives,aswellastwo-syllableadjectiveswith-y,-ly, or -le endings, comparative and superlative degrees are marked by -er and -est and discussed in practically every grammar textbook (e.g., hot—hotter—hot- test,pretty—prettier—prettiest). In academic writing, comparative degree adjec- tives with -erare far more prevalent than other comparative constructions. In addition, academic writing in general employs more comparatives than other types of writing, such as fiction or news (Biber et al., 1999).
Other comparative degree adjectives adhere to a phrasal pattern with more/most + adjective (e.g., more accurate, most prominent). Like -er com para- tive forms, more and most phrases are also found more frequently in aca- demic text than any other.
In addition to the more/most comparative and superlative degree adjec- tives, all adverbs with the -ly suffix also take more/most forms of comparative and superlative degrees. Such adverbs are far more numerous than those that take -er/-est comparative forms simply because more adverbs end in -ly than those that do not. Those adverbs that have formsidentical toadjectives (e.g., early—earlier—earliest, friendly—-friendlier—-friendliest, fast—-faster—-fast- est, late—later—latest, low—lower—lowest) follow the adjective comparative degree pattern for words with similar syllable structure.
What Not to Teach. Constructions with comparative clauses such as -er than and as ... as are actually relatively rare despite the fact that they are ad-
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