Comparison

Early Material

The documents discussing morphology of comparative, especially with regards to inferiority, in the later phases of Quenya remain unpublished. The material from Early Quenya has been temporarily adopted.

This chapter deals with a number of expressions that are syntactically quite diverse, but have in common one of the two following properties: either entities are compared with respect to a property they possess, or properties of an entity are compared.

A typical comparative construction consists of five constituent parts:

[My sister]1 is [as]2 [pretty]3 [as]4 [you]5.

  • comparee
  • parameter marker
  • parameter
  • standard marker
  • standard

The parameter, the standard (adjective, in the most basic case), and the comparee are open class elements. The parameter marker and the standard marker are functional and fairly fixed.

Depending on which constituents are expressed and how, the following types of comparison are distinguished:

  • expressions in which entities are compared with respect to a certain quality, i.e. comparative of inequality: superiority, inferiority or equative;
  • expressions in which qualities (usually of the same entity) are compared in their extent;
  • expressions in which the (dis)similarity between terms is expressed lexically;
  • expressions that characterize the manner in which a certain event takes place or the quality of a certain entity;
  • relative adjectives of amount. This type is discussed in @@;
  • finally, proportional and superlative constructions.

Elative and Attenuative

Quenya doesn't have comparative or superlative forms of adjectives so typical to European languages. Mostly it uses neutral or unmarked positive adjectives in comparison constructions, but sometimes we find adjectives with intensity markers: elatives and attenuatives.

A special form of adjective, called elative, expresses a relatively high degree of the meaning of an adjective, or a higher degree than expected in the specific situation or in general:

  1. Arwen anamelda Arwen is very beautiful.
  2. elen ancalima very bright star, star brighter than usual.

The elative is formed either with a prefix ama- or with ari-, the latter expressing much higher contrast between concepts, persons, entities or groups1. Finally, a prefix ere- indicates the uniqueness of the high degree of intensity:

  1. elen ancalima very bright star;
  2. elen arcalima extremely bright star.
  3. elen ercalima sole bright star, one of a kind bright star.

Early Material

The opposite of elative, attenuative, expresses a lower degree of quality: niccezyaima not particularly interesting. Adjectives which have a clear antonym (good — bad, big — small) rarely use such form.

Together elative and attenuative are called graded adjectives. To form them, beside the prefixes mentioned above, positive adjective can also take augmentative and diminutive nominal suffixes: luinincë bluish.

Comparison between two terms with respect to a certain quality

Quenya has two types of devices for comparing two terms with respect to a certain quality:

  • devices that express the equivalence (or: equality) of such terms;
  • and devices that express the non-equivalence (or: inequality).

Comparison of non-equivalence

In the case of non-equivalence the comparative formula lacks a parameter marker. The combination of parameter and standard marker can be divided into three classes:

  • Positive adjectives, sometimes modified by an adverb with a comparative meaning like ambe more and nince less, with a standard marker lá than; similarly adverbs modified by a comparative adverb;
  • Elative forms related to adverbs/prepositions with a local or temporal meaning like amna closer, nearer;
  • Lexical items with a comparative meaning, including:
    • positive or graded adjectives with adverbs and prepositions that indicate relative position (in space or time) like epe before, nó after, imbë among, and ar beyond;
    • verbs expressing preference, such as to prefer or to be preferable.

A negated expression of non-equivalence sometimes comes close to an expression of equivalence. This is especially the case with ú nence lá no less than and ú ambe lá no more than.

The comparative particle lá 'than'

The regular comparative expression of non-equivalence consists of a positive adjective combined with lá for introducing the standard of comparison. There are almost no syntactic or semantic restrictions on the use of this particle, as opposed to the use of epe/nó and the genitive or dative of comparison.

  1. Earendil calima lá Luinil [modified; PE17/90]. Venus is brighter than Rigel.

Assumption

In this way superiority was inferred. For better clarity the adjective may be modified by an expression of degree ambe more and nence less.

The spatial prepositions as standard markers

Prepositions epe and nó4 in conjunction with positive or graded adjectives are another typical way to form explicitly marked comparative of superiority and inferiority:

  1. Earendil (an)calima epe Luinil [modified; PE17/57]. Venus is brighter than Rigel;
  2. Luinil (nic)calima nó Earendel Rigel is less bright than Venus.

Early Material

No example of attenuative in later phases has been published yet, but there is a document where they might be mentioned2.

It is not clear whether positive adjectives would be permitted with these markers, but they might well be3.

Other spatial prepositions also occur in this role:

  1. ancalima imbi eleni [PE17/91]. Brightest among stars;
  2. anamelda ar ilyan [PE17/57]. Dearest of all. Note the use of dative with the preposition ar.

The dative of comparison

With set expressions, especially of proverbial notion, or in poetry an older dative of comparison (30.@@) can be found:

  1. malda muntar [EQ: PE14/81]. Better than nothing.

The comparative element used with expressions of quantity, extent of space or time, age, etc.

Assumption

With the comparatives ambe more, amne nearer, ambela farther, amanda longer, anyára older etc, used in combination with an expression of quantity or of extent of space or distance lá is not used.

Expressions specifying the measure of difference in comparisons of non-equivalence

To-Do

  • accusative ('an inch taller than');
  • lé ('taller than ... by an inch');
  • similarly, instrumental.

Comparison of equivalence

The most common way to indicate that two terms are equivalent with respect to a certain parameter is with the correlative adverbs ta ... ve. These adverbs can be used with adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and with verbs, but also with entire clauses. The parameter may be indicated with both terms but is usually indicated only with one. An example of indication of the parmeter in both terms is (@@). For other correlative pairs, →32.@@.

Equivalence can also be expressed by other combinations of correlative words, as in si ... ve or yalle.

Negation of an expression of comparison of equivalence can be interpreted more or less as an expression of non-equivalence, as in @@, where ú ta ... ve resembles nince ... lá.

Similative

While comparison of equivalence (or equative) expresses degree and extent, or in other words, quantity, a similar but syntactically different construction similative compares terms in their manner:

  1. i·fairi ve maiwi yaimie [MC/222]. The phantoms like gulls wailing.

It mostly employs a bare conjunction ve like, but we also find more emphatic tambe or síve just as or, between clauses, relative-based yalle:

  1. na carë indómelya cemende tambe Erumande [VT43/17]. Thy will be done on Earth as in Heaven.
  2. A carne ta yalle B (carne) [PE17/74]. A did like/as B (did).

Comparison between two properties

As with comparison between two terms, for comparison between two 'properties' a distinction must be made between the situation in which two properties are presented as equivalent and one in which they are presented as nonequivalent.

Comparison of non-equivalence between two properties

For indicating that of two properties which an entity possesses one is present in a higher (or lower) degree than the other, Quenya employs ambe (or nince) lá. It can be used to compare two verbs, both expressed but with a different degree. In a similar way it is used to compare two adjectives (with the copula expressed or not), but it can also be used to compare two adverbs (with the adverbs functioning as disjuncts).

Note

In a way resembling the corrective use of ambe mentioned above, ecse ... lá rather than, and to a lesser extent rongo ... lá sooner than, can be used to correct a term or to replace it by another term. These expressions convey a subjective evaluation.

Comparison of equivalence between two properties

Properties that are presented as equivalent may have various forms and may occur at various levels. Typically they can be analyzed as two equative clauses, coordinated with yalle.

  1. A tulca yalle nórima A is as strong as he is fast;

Similarity and dissimilarity

Expressions of similarity and dissimilarity belong to various lexical classes:

  1. imya the same, enta other, and related adverbs;
  2. ovèa similar, véla alike, etc.;

To-Do

  • Coin such words as equal, different, otherwise, etc.
  • Coordinators? Adverbs of manner?

Proportional Comparison

To-Do

  • ve ... ta/si ?

While the comparative expresses the higher degree of the meaning of an adjective with respect to some reference, the superlative expresses the highest degree. The comparative is employed to compare two entities or two groups of entities, while the superlative typically oposes one entity to a group. The superlative in Quenya is usually expressed in one of three ways:

  • an article with partitive3:

    • i rindë roccoron the fastest of horses;

  • a graded adjective with partitive:

    • ancalima elenion [PE17/56]. One of the brightest stars;
    • arcalima elenion [PE17/56]. The brightest of stars.

  • a positive or graded adjective with prepositions imbe or ar, especially with universal quantifiers ilya or illi:

    • (an)calima imbi eleni [PE17/91]. Brightest among stars;
    • (ana)melda ar ilyan [PE17/57]. Dearest of all.

Sources:

  • "Comparative and superlative" by Pierluigi Cuzzolin
  • "Equative and similative constructions in the languages of Europe" by Martin Haspelmath

  1. [PE17/56]: "The difference is that ari ( < arya-, to excel) implies a greater degree of the quality, and/or a greater gap between the thing so described and its (nearest) competitor". ↩

  2. [PE21/78]: "see below on CE 'noun and adjective suffixes and prefixes'" {pointing to yet unpublished text}. ↩

  3. [PE21/78]: "The superlative was usually expressed by an article and partitive: as 'the swift among horses'; the comparative with some preposition: as 'swift beyond others'". ↩↩

  4. Only comparative with epe is attested. ↩