“More strenger and mightier”: Some remarks on double comparison in Middle English
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Date
2007
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
The marginal participation of double comparison1, like more nicer, in adjective gradation in historical
and contemporary English has been corroborated by numerical evidence (Kytö and Romaine
1997, 2000; González-Díaz 2004, 2006a). The studies in question, however, failed to address some
data limitations and their distorting impact on the picture of real language use. Although this omission
may seem less striking regarding the historical sources, it nevertheless calls for an immediate
remedy. Also, the alleged marginal participation of the construction in adjective gradation, as well as
its grounds, require thorough verification. What cannot be ignored, is the fact that a clear contradiction
exists between the disappearance of double comparison from standard English and its popularity
and persistence in colloquial speech and manifold nonstandard varieties of English and other genetically
related languages. In other words, even though in the analysed data, the appearance of double
comparison in English appears to be as abrupt as is its demise, its ubiquity outside the standard
varieties points to a continuous development not reflected in the surviving record or the analysed
contemporary corpora. With a view to this, this paper aims at an analysis based on data (so far excluded
from investigations) representing the period of the highest incidence of the construction, i.e.
Middle English. Also, bearing in mind the limitations of historical record, apart from synchronicallyor
diachronically-oriented explanations, the study proposes resorting to some externally-oriented
explanations (cf. Good, forthcoming).
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Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 43 (2007), pp. 195-217