tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315629333109868789.post3835289665764511492..comments2024-03-17T22:59:24.273+00:00Comments on Peter Household - things that have interested me: Younger or youngest? Can Jane Austen err?Peter Householdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04537256881744236389noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315629333109868789.post-66880963742617388222016-02-02T23:41:32.810+00:002016-02-02T23:41:32.810+00:00Today at our Cork Jane Austen group, Majella drew ...Today at our Cork Jane Austen group, Majella drew my attention to a Manual of English Grammar (1908) by one J C Nesfield, wherein we find:<br />“The Comparative denotes a higher degree of the quality; as , ‘a more beautiful horse’. This is used when *two* things are compared.”<br />If this was intended to PROVE ME WRONG it failed dismally, indeed it gave rise to a spirited argument. Majella was of the view that this book constitutes that very Big Book of English Grammar whose existence I had doubted. Which I rebutted by asserting that whilst everyone knows Jane Austen, who knows J C Nesfield, or indeed cares about him, or his pretentions to dictate the rules of English? By the way we found three more so-called infringements of the “comparative rule” in "Emma", where Mrs Elton (like Emma herself) is described as the youngest of two daughters, there is a debate as to which is the largest of two rooms, and Emma says that Mr Martin may be the richest of the two.Peter Householdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04537256881744236389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315629333109868789.post-56511928991304115072016-02-02T20:21:33.043+00:002016-02-02T20:21:33.043+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Peter Householdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04537256881744236389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2315629333109868789.post-63677701286891398732016-01-07T07:26:58.786+00:002016-01-07T07:26:58.786+00:00Regardless of which word is used whether it be you...Regardless of which word is used whether it be younger or youngest the reader is not misled, for the reader knows that Emma is the junior of the two.A Heron's Viewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06563706152609630696noreply@blogger.com