Re: [tied] Fwd: question re English grammar

Hi Brian,

> >> She speaks loud (or do you say loudly? Sprachgefühl says
> >> to me: loud)
>
> I say <loudly> and find <loud> questionable,

My feeling for the language could not tell me what was right. Logic
said to me, this should be an adverb; feeling said to me, I have
heard native speakers say loud in this context. So I wanted to find
out if my feeling reflects some usage in spoken language which is
rejected in standard grammar.

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.

This is new to me. I am not very well acquainted with historical
English grammar (I mean Piotr's comments here as well). Do you mean,
however, that standard English grammar still considers those both
adverbs and adjectives? Do you mean that you would say "loudly" in
the positive, but still "louder" and "the loudest" in the comparative
and superlative degrees? Your feeling for the language is most
important to me, the logical explanation in standard grammar would
only follow, since it is anyway only artificial rationalising on and
codifying of certain phenomena in the living, spoken language.

>
> >> 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.)

Where do I find a list or a summary of such adjectives which have
preserved their use as adverbs in modern English grammar?

Thanks again for your comments.

Evelina