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As far as I was taught and read in various places (examples: 1, 2), some adjectives in English are not comparable, which is that they don't have comparative and superlative forms. Why is that? I think that every adjective can be compared.

I will use these adjectives commonly considered noncomparable as examples: “unique” and “triangular”. The idea is that everything ‹x› is more ‹x› than everything not ‹x› for all adjectives ‹x›.

Everything unique is more unique than everything not unique, and everything unique is most unique because there can't be anything more unique than unique. Example: “The Night Watch is more unique than every one of the paintings of Golden Gate Bridge.” (So The Night Watch is unique, and the paintings of Golden Gate Bridge are not unique.)

Similarly, everything triangular is more triangular than everything not triangular and so on. Example: “Every triangle is more triangular than every square.”

This question isn't about grading. I consider that these adjectives are binary, so everything is either that or not that. Grading words like “very” and “quite” don't do anything. With “unique”, that could be debated because “unique” could mean “very special”, but I can't imagine that anything is not completely triangular or not triangular in the world of polygons. My idea is that, the words are not (sensibly) gradable, but comparing them makes sense.

matj1
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    Some adjectives are often used loosely ('this bucket is fuller than the other one', with the sense 'more nearly full'. Others are not ('our soldiers are deader than our enemy's' for 'more of our soldiers are dead than are our enemy's'). The sense of 'unique' meaning 'very special' is now accepted by many, and obviously lends itself to grading. But 'a more/very chemical reaction' / *'a fairly polar bear' show that trying to grade classifying adjectives is senseless. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '23 at 14:07
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    To be clear, 'graded' vs 'non-gradable' is not a syntactic distinction - it is about the semantics of the words. You -can- say 'X is more unique than Y' but it doesn't make logical sense. Just like you can say 'colorless and green'. – Mitch Apr 26 '23 at 14:12
  • Does this answer your question? Are the rules regarding absolute adjectives too absolute? Absolute (dead; off) and extreme (boiling; enormous) adjectives are the other relevant classes; they are sometimes 'graded' for brevity (more full than ...) or emphasis (quite dead). – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '23 at 14:15
  • So you mean: comparatively?? Comparable is a misnomer for your meaning. Deader than a doornail. Please check your spelling. – Lambie Apr 26 '23 at 14:29
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    @Mitch “X is more unique than Y” makes sense. That sentence is true if X is unique and Y is not unique. As far as I know, it doesn't introduce contradictions, so it logically makes sense. – matj1 Apr 26 '23 at 14:31
  • @EdwinAshworth That doesn't answer my question. Grading is not what I mean. I am thinking about binary adjectives (like dead/alive and nothing between them) and comparing them. – matj1 Apr 26 '23 at 14:37
  • @Lambie I think that the usage of “comparable” in the post is correct. It is according to the linked examples, and comparable means that it has comparative forms. Absolute adjectives don't have comparative forms, so they are not comparable according to the linked examples. – matj1 Apr 26 '23 at 14:41
  • @matj1 Comparable means that can be compared. Comparative is a grammatical category. The experts' opinions were more absolute than the lawyers' opinions. – Lambie Apr 26 '23 at 14:43
  • @Lambie That it can be compared and that it has a comparative form are equivalent. Comparative forms are the only way to compare in English as far as I know. In your example, the “more absolute” is a comparative form and is used to compare the absoluteness of the experts' opinions to the absoluteness of the lawyers' opinions. – matj1 Apr 26 '23 at 15:20
  • No, that can be compared does not mean comparative. You can compare anything to anything else. In that sense, two things can be comparable or not. And there is a grammatical form called a comparative, which is not the same thing at all. I was just trying to show that the term absolute can be used comparatively. **Comparative adjectives can take er + than or more/less +word than three syllables. – Lambie Apr 26 '23 at 15:23
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – matj1 Apr 26 '23 at 15:45

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