Degree Of Comparison
Comparison is a feature in the grammar of most languages, whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected or modified to produce forms which indicate the relative degree of the designated properties.
The grammatical category associated with comparison of adjectives and adverbs is degree of comparison. The usual degrees of comparison are the positive, which simply denotes a property (as with the English words big and fully); the comparative, which indicates greater degree (as bigger and more fully); and the superlative, which indicates greatest degree (as biggest and most fully). Some languages have forms indicating a very large degree of a particular quality (called elative in Semitic linguistics).
Read more about Degree Of Comparison: Formation of Comparatives and Superlatives, Comparative and Superlative Constructions, Usage When Considering Only Two Things, Rhetorical Use of Unbalanced Comparatives, Comparison in English
Famous quotes containing the words degree of, degree and/or comparison:
“A certain degree of miserey [sic] seems inseparable from a high degree of populousness.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“[Girls] study under the paralyzing idea that their acquirements cannot be brought into practical use. They may subserve the purposes of promoting individual domestic pleasure and social enjoyment in conversation, but what are they in comparison with the grand stimulation of independence and self- reliance, of the capability of contributing to the comfort and happiness of those whom they love as their own souls?”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)