Comparison of Adverbs
a. Relative Comparison of Adverbs
Adverbs are compared much as adjectives.
A few monosyllabic adverbs add -er in the comparative and -est in the superlative: fast, faster, fastest. 'He climbed higher.' 'He lives nearer us.' 'He lives nearest to us.' 'Come up closer to the fire.' 'John worked hardest." 'He couldn't speak finer if he wanted to borrow' (George Eliot). 'I can't stay longer.' 'He stayed longest.' 'I would sooner die than do it. Also the dissyllabics, often and early, are compared by means of endings: 'He is absent oftener than is necessary.' 'You ought to have told me earlier.' Easy, an adverb in certain set expressions, is similarly compared: 'Easier said than done.'
Earlier in the period, terminational comparison was often used where we now employ more and most: 'There is almost no man but he sees clearlier and sharper (now more clearly and sharply) the vices in a speaker then (now than) the vertues' (Ben Jonson, Discoveries, p. 19, A.D. 1641).
Most adverbs are now compared by means of more, most and less, least: rapidly, móre rapidly, móst rapidly; rapidly, less rapidly, least rapidly. aa. Irregularities.
A few irregularities in the form occur, corresponding closely to those found in adjectives:
In American colloquial language worst often has the force of most: 'The thing I need the worst is money. The worst kind and the worst way are common in popular speech as adverbs with the force of very much: 'I wanted to go the worst kind or the worst way.'
bb. Newer Forms of Expression.
Besides the normal usa described above there is another which is quite common in colloquial speech and occurs sometimes in the literary language. The superlative is formed by employing the adverbial neuter accusative of the noun made from the adjective superlative preceded by the definite article: 'All good and wise Men certainly take care To help themselves and families the first' (Robert Rogers, Ponteach, I, IV, A.D. 1776). 'I am going. ... to Havre, whence I shall get the quickest to Southampton' (Charlotte Smith, Emmeline, IV, 55, A.D. 1788). 'Of all my books I like this the best' (Dickens, David Copperfield, Preface). 'He was the greatest patriot in their eyes who brawled the loudest and who cared the least for decency' (id., Martin Chuzzlewit, Ch. XVI). 'It is impossible to say whose eyes would be the widest opened' (Henry Arthur Jones, The Divine Gift, Dedication, p. 49). 'My father liked this the best' (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, A Memoir by His Son, 3, 245). 'We are sure that those who have known Somerset the longest will thor oughly enjoy Mr. Hutton's pages' (Atheneum, Dec. 28, 1912). 'Great souls are they who love the most, who breathe the deepest of heaven's air, and give of themselves most freely' (William Allen White, A Certain Rich Man, Ch. XXII). 'Of all the orders of men they fascinate me the most' (H. L. Mencken, Prejudices, Series III, p. 217).
This form is now spreading also to the comparative: 'He runs the faster' (instead of the simple faster). This led him to consider which of them could be the better spared' (Dickens, Martin Chuzzle wit, Ch. XXXIII). 'I hardly know who was the more to blame for it' (L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, Ch. XXIII). 'Ruth could not tell which she liked the better' (Lucy Fitch Perkins, The Children's Yearbook, p. 17).
In the case of the analytic form with most, least, more, less, this adverbial neuter accusative cannot be used at all. We often, however, add the adverbial ending ly to the analytic adjective, superlative or comparative, preceded by the definite article, thus marking the form clearly as an adverb: 'If it be true that such meat as is the most dangerously earned is the sweetest' (Goldsmith, Natural History, VI, 82, A.D. 1774). 'It was difficult to say which of the young men seemed to regard her the most tenderly' (Thackeray, Pendennis, II, Ch. XX). 'Standing here between you the Englishman, so clever in your foolishness, and this Irishman, so foolish in his cleverness, I cannot in my ignorance be sure which of you is the more deeply damned' (George Bernard Shaw, John Bull's Other Island, Act IV).
In the relation of sentence adverb the adverbial neuter accusative form of the superlative is replaced by an adverbial phrase, consisting of the preposition at and the noun made from the adjective superlative preceded by the definite article: 'I cannot hear from Dick at the earliest before Tuesday' (Mrs. Alexander, A Life Interest, II, Ch. XVIII), or ' At the earliest I can't hear from Dick before Tuesday.'
When it is not the actions of different persons that are compared but the actions of one and the same person at different times and under different circumstances, we employ the adverbial neuter accusative of the noun made from the adjective superlative pre ceded by a possessive adjective: 'Two women shrieked their loudest' (Thackeray, Pendennis, II, Ch. XXXVIII). 'Carver smiled his pleasantest' (R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Ch. XXVIII). An adverbial phrase with the preposition at is some times used instead of the adverbial accusative: 'He led me in a courtly manner, stepping at his tallest, to an open place beside the water'. In the relation of sentence adverb this prepositional phrase form is quite common and freely used both with the simple and the analytic superlative, especially the latter: 'Even at his ungainliest and his most wilful, Mr. Thompson sins still in the grand manner' (Academy, Apr. 14, 1894, 303). 'Nature at her most unadorned never takes that air of nakedness which a great open unabashed window throws upon the landscape' (Atlantic Monthly, Mar. 1887, 324).
b. Absolute Superlative.
This superlative of the adverb is formed from the absolute superlative of the adjective. 'Mary's mother is a most beautiful woman' and 'Mary's mother sings most beautifully.'
The absolute superlative is sometimes formed by employing the adverbial neuter accusative of the noun made from the adjective superlative preceded by the definite article: 'I do not the least mind it' (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, A Memoir by His Son, 4, 72). 'It does not matter the least' (Florence Montgomery, Misunder stood, Ch. IV).
Instead of this form we often use a prepositional phrase containing a simple superlative of an adjective in attributive use, standing before a noun or the simple superlative used as a noun and preceded by the definite article: 'The letter was written in the kindest spirit.' "That does not concern me in the least.
Instead of a superlative here we more commonly use a positive modified by very, exceedingly, absolutely, etc.: 'She sings very beautifully.' In colloquial and popular language, the intensive ad verbs, awfully, dreadfully, terribly, etc., are common, sometimes without the suffix -ly before an adverb: 'The work is moving awfully slow.' 'I lived mighty comfortably.'
To express an absolutely high degree of activity in connection with a verb, we place very before an adverb of degree, such as much, greatly, etc.: 'He is suffering very much.' To express an absolutely high degree of a quality, we place very before the positive of the adjective: 'very sick, very pleasing, a very distressed look.' But instead of saying 'I was very much pleased, very greatly dis tressed,' many incorrectly say 'I was very pleased, very distressed,' feeling pleased and distressed as adjective rather than as verbal forms, which they are. Similarly, we should use too much, too greatly before verbal forms, not simple too: 'I was too much (or too greatly) discouraged by this failure to try again.'
