MODIFICATION AND COMPLEMENTATION IN THE ADVERBIAL GROUP
COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE USES
Adverbs are graded by the same words as adjectives:
more often, most often, less often, least often, as often, often enough, too often
Although the adverb enough is placed after the head adverb, we shall consider it as a modifier as we do with adjectives, since it can itself be sub-modified by an adverb placed before the head: not quite often enough (*not quite enough often).
The following suppletive forms are used as comparative and superlative forms of the adjectives good, bad and far, and the adverbs well, badly and far:
Good/well: better, best; bad/badly: worse, worst; far: further, furthest
Tomorrow morning would suit me best, for the meeting. It was the driver who came off worst in the accident.
The forms shared by adverbs and adjectives early, late, quick, fast, long, soon take –est and -er in grades 1 and 2.
His speech was longer than mine. He spoke longer than I did.
I arrived later than Monica, because I came by a later train.
Please come the earliest you possibly can. Take the earliest train.
Correlative forms
The constructions formed by the more... the more (or -er . . . -er), the less . . . the less, the more . . . the less can be used correlatively to indicate a progressive increase, or decrease, of the quality or process described. Both adjectives and adverbs can occur in this construction:
The bigger they are, the harder they fall, don’t they? (adj–adv) [KBB]
The sooner you forget the whole incident, the better. (adv–adv)
The more closely I look at the problem, the less clearly I see a solution. (adv–adv)
This construction is illustrated in the following extract from an in-flight magazine:
Don’t eat a large high-fat meal if you want to be mentally sharp afterwards. Too much food brings on lethargy. Fat stays in the digestive tract longer, prolonging tiredness. The fattier and heavier the meal, the longer it takes you to recover mental alertness and energy.
