Comparative and Superlative Constructions
Comparatives are often used with a conjunction or other grammatical means to indicate with what the comparison is being made, as with than in English, als in German, etc. In Russian this can be done by placing the compared noun in the genitive case. With superlatives, the class of things being considered for comparison may be indicated, as in the best swimmer out of all the girls.
Languages also possess other structures for comparing adjectives and adverbs; English examples include as...as and less/least....
Read more about this topic: Degree Of Comparison
Famous quotes containing the words comparative and/or superlative:
“That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his obscurity and indigence humanity holds him a dog and no man: that hour is a hard one, but not the hardest. There is still another hour which follows, when he learns that in his infinite comparative minuteness and abjectness, the gods do likewise despise him, and own him not of their clan.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“You say there is no religion now. ‘Tis like saying in rainy weather, there is no sun, when at that moment we are witnessing one of his superlative effects.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)