4

Many languages have comparative and superlative suffixes or other morphological forms such as English ‘-er’ and ‘-est’, Latin ‘-or’ and ‘-issimus’, and Arabic ‘afʕal’ template, but I couldn’t find any kanguages with a negative comparative forms, and even some websites which claimed they don’t exist in any language. Why is that and is there truly no language which has a ‘negative comparative’ form?

PS: What tags would fit this question, I couldn’t think of any.

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    Most languages have negative comparative and superlative constructions – English has ‘less X’ and ‘(the) least X’, for example. What they generally don’t have are negative comparative/superlative morphological forms, made by adding a suffix or using a template, parallel to how the positive comparative and superlative are formed. The most obvious guess at a reason would be because the negatives are much rarer than the positives – you simply need them less often(!).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 7:56
  • Yes, mixed them up, sorry.
    – Quintus Caesius - RM
    Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 8:55
  • You may want to take a look at linguistics.stackexchange.com/a/2122/445
    – Alex B.
    Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 12:32
  • As in, likely → unlikelier (less likely) → unlikeliest (least likely)?
    – Draconis ♦
    Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 17:43
  • 1
    Not really? You can’t use that for any adjective, for example you can’t have ‘unbigger’. I was thinking something more like the opposite of ‘-er’, like some prefix or suffix that means ‘less’.
    – Quintus Caesius - RM
    Commented Jul 23, 2021 at 17:59

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.