Re: [tied] Fwd: question re English grammar

At 9:27:34 AM on Thursday, February 17, 2005, george knysh
wrote:

> I received the following query from a friend. Since we're
> presently on our mid-term break my English l. colleagues
> are unavailable for comment. If anyone had the patience
> and kindness to respond to this it would be forwarded with
> much appreciation. GK

[...]

>> There are, however, other cases of using an adjective in
>> place of an adverb where the case with explaining the
>> subject is not so clear.

>> For example:

>> She speaks loud (or do you say loudly? Sprachgefühl says
>> to me: loud)

I say <loudly> and find <loud> questionable, but in fact
<loud> has been an adverb as well as an adjective for a long
time, and the comparative and superlative survive even for
those of us who no longer use <loud> as an adverb.

>> She jumped higher than him.
>> She ran slower than him. (Slowlier, huh?)

<High> and <slow> are adverbs as well as adjectives, so
there's no problem here. (Actually, many prefer <slowly> to
adverbial <slow>, but the old comparative and superlative
are standard.)

[...]

Brian