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I have a question about a particular sense of the adverbs "still" and "yet":

to a greater extent or degree

Most dictionaries has the entry above for both "still" and "yet". So, the following are standard English:

  1. It was a still more difficult problem.
  2. It was a yet more difficult problem.

But dictionaries seem to allow a alternative placement for "still", so the following is possible for using "still":

  1. The problem was more difficult still.

No such alternative placement for "yet" is suggested in dictionaries, to allow the following:

  1. The problem was more difficult yet.

Is sentence 4 standard English overlooked by dictionaries?

meatie
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    #4 is a stylised rearrangement of The problem was yet* more difficult,* but all such usages of *yet* to mean *still* are probably at least "dated", if not actually archaic. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 18:35
  • @FumbleFingers So, the pattern in sentence 4 is actually standard English? – meatie Sep 10 '16 at 18:40
  • Define "standard". I wouldn't be surprised to encounter it in a Victorian text, but it's not exactly idiomatic in current English. But then again I don't much like your example #3 either, and I rather suspect that was never particularly likely even in Victorian times. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 18:41
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    @FumbleFingers Is it fair to say that any of the OP's sentences might be encountered in contemporary writing, but that none of them are likely to be encountered in contemporary speech? In common speech, neither still nor yet would be used, I think. Instead, we might hear something like The problem was even more difficult. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Sep 10 '16 at 19:54
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    Nice question, @meatie. – TimR Sep 10 '16 at 20:19
  • Taking ngram with the grain of salt: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=more+ADJ+yet%2Cmore+ADJ+still&year_start=1600&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmore%20_ADJ_%20yet%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmore%20_ADJ_%20still%3B%2Cc0 – TimR Sep 10 '16 at 20:23
  • With the superlative the story's much different. – TimR Sep 10 '16 at 20:26
  • @P. E. Dant: If by "contemporary writing" you mean everything written in recent decades, then yes - we do still see it. But I think it would practically always be in the context of historical fiction, mock-historical fantasy, and "facetious" usages. As you say, today it's *even, not yet harder*. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 20:40
  • @FumbleFingers Three Google pages into the modern corpus, I found only one from 2008 and one from 2011. "Yet" is used pretty frequently in this sense, though, in the dependent clause More difficult yet. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Sep 11 '16 at 01:21

1 Answers1

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No such alternative placement for "yet" is suggested in dictionaries, to allow the following:

The problem was more difficult yet.

If not suggested, does it mean not allowed? No. You can use the sentence as is.

Anyway...

The problem was more difficult still. = The problem was more difficult in spite of that = [in spite of something not mentioned]; or even (more difficult).

The problem was more difficult yet. = The problem was more difficult still more (difficult) or even (more difficult).

However, and though both are used as different parts of speech with different definitions, only yet is a conjunction, which might explain that it is not used at the end of a sentence or as the last word because it is a subordinating conjunction used primarily to introduce an adverb dependent clause.

The problem was more difficult, yet he was determined to fix it. [yet modifies the verb phrase was determined]

Put another way, yet as the last word can be misleading. Is it modifying difficult or is there a missing clause?

Still it is used at the end of a sentence.

http://learnersdictionary.com/definition/yet

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/yet_1

Arch Denton
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