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Which languages have a marker of the comparative degree of adjectives that coincides with a marker of a low degree? ...or which has evolved from such a low degree marker?

(A message asking for the list of such languages was originally posted by Lisa Bylinina at this internet page, check in Russian, under number 1.)

Another term that has been used for these "low degree markers" could be attenuative, cf. Boguslavsky,Iomdin(2009) in "Semantics of Attenuated Comparatives in Russian" on the Russian words with po-

we will henceforth refer to them as attenuatives, following Igor Mel’čuk(1998).

In fact, this "whole story about low degrees and comparison grew out of Russian po-, and the role it plays in comparative construction, but the really striking fact about Bulgarian is that po- there has nothing to do with low degree anymore at all. It is just the default (and the only? don't remember) comparative marker in Bulgarian".

imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
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  • Can you explain what you mean by 'low degree marker'? – Gaston Ümlaut Oct 23 '11 at 05:27
  • @Gaston: By 'low degree marker' I meant a marker that is used to contruct a form that means that a property is possessed by an object to a lesser degree than "normal". – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev Oct 23 '11 at 05:49
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    Visiting the link I realized I can't see what was written in that site. Can you please report here, also for ease of reference? – Alenanno Oct 23 '11 at 08:21
  • @Alenanno: Re "can't see". Do you simply mean that the encoding of Russian letters is wrong, or do you mean something more serious, like you don't seem have enough rights to access that message for reading? Essentailly, I have simply translated those questions into English. IMO, it would be more useful to give recoding instructions (so that people can track follow-up answers there, too) rather than just post the original Russian text here. – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev Oct 23 '11 at 08:31
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    @imz I meant the first, look I see this "äÏÒÏÇÉÅ ËÏÌÌÅÇÉ, íÎÅ ÂÙ ÈÏÔÅÌÏÓØ ÕÚÎÁÔØ, × ËÁËÉÈ ÑÚÙËÁÈ ÂÙ×ÁÅÔ ÓÌÅÄÕÀÝÅÅ". If I can't see it in the link, then it's better to quote the real text here. If it's important to see the text of course, but I get it is, since you linked to it. :) – Alenanno Oct 23 '11 at 08:33
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    The original Russian text of the question (in case you get a wrong encoding when you ollow the link): *Мне бы хотелось узнать, в каких языках бывает следующее:
    1. Показатель сравнительной формы прилагательного совпадает с

    показателем низкой степени или развился из такого показателя;*

     – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev Oct 23 '11 at 08:41
  • @Alenanno: That was not because reading the original text was important for understanding the question, but because I wanted it to be explicitly attributed to the original author. – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev Oct 23 '11 at 08:45
  • @imz Ah ok :) thank you for reporting it! – Alenanno Oct 23 '11 at 08:46
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    Do you know at least one language that has this feature? An example would certainly improve your question and increase its chances of receiving an answer. – Otavio Macedo Nov 06 '11 at 00:19
  • @Otavio: this question has been also discussed at linguaphiles.livejournal.com, with some of the known examples mentioned there. (A search for "low degree marker" leads to that page.) Another term for it could be attenuative, cf. Boguslavsky,Iomdin(2009) "Semantics of Attenuated Comparatives in Ru..." on the Russian words with po-: "we will henceforth refer to them as attenuatives, following Igor Mel’čuk(1998)". – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev Nov 06 '11 at 14:59
  • Ok, @imz. +1 for the edit. – Otavio Macedo Nov 06 '11 at 16:00

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