Dear D S:

You wrote:
> Dear Folks at Grammar Slammer:
>
> In searching for answers regarding the usage of “less” and “lesser,”
> Google gave me a page from your files:
> https://englishplus.com/news/news0701.htm#preview.
>
> Has there been an update regarding this discussion since 2001? The page
> states that in the sentence ” Not that I loved Caesar the less,” “less” is
> an adjective. If it is an adjective, how can it be modified by “the”,
> which is also an adjective? Based on this fact, would “less” in that
> sentence be a noun? Or, is it an incomplete construction?
>
Some authorities take your position that it is a noun; however, both comparatives and superlatives are commonly used with “the” and would be considered by most an adjective or an adverb. Actually, “less” in the example you gave is an adverb modifying “loved.” Think of such expressions as “The more the merrier” or “sixpence none the richer” or “none the better for it” or “so much the better.”

My Funk and Wagnall’s (mentioned on the page you refer to) notes that “the” is sometimes an adverb modifying the comparative or superlative. That is pretty much the accepted position.

> My second question has to do with the following construction located on
> the same page:
>
> “(We have been debating whether the word Less can be used as an adjective
> in the positive form in the office. But you still have not given me an
> example in which the word Less:
>
> 1) is used as an adjective;
> 2) is used as an adjective in the original / positive form (not
> comparative or superlative).”
The page you refer to has one: “A month less a year.” Such a construction, of course, would not be made into a comparative, it is always postive. Other examples we could come up with were comparative by nature.

What may eventually happen with “less” is that “lesser” will become more acceptable in more uses. Look at what happened to “nigh/near/next.” Originally “nigh” was the positive, “near” was the comparative, and “next” was the superlative. Now “nigh” is seldom used–it sounds a bit old-fashioned–“near” means what “nigh” used to mean, and we commonly use the words “nearer” and “nearest” for the comparative and superlative. “Next” still has a similar meaning but has lost all sense of being a superlative. Now when we say, “Sit next to me,” we are just talking about a position; there is no implication that there are others also nearby.
>
> I would like to know if it is acceptable to create a series beginning with
> verbs that are connected to their subject in the main text. Second, Is it
> correct to use a semicolon after the first listing since each listng, when
> affixed to the subject in the text is a complete sentence. I thought the
> listing were to have a self-sufficiency of these ouw and be able to stand
> on their own. It seems that by using the semicolon, the writer of this is
> really jsut taking a sentence and placing a portion of it in a list
> format. If this is the case, then I would question what would happen if
> the reconstruction did not occur? I We would have a repetition of “”is
> used…”, which would create a grammatical problem regarding the proper
> use of the semicolon. Perhaps what is here is a hybred.I guess I am asking
> if the listing is viewed as a free-standing entity or as a part of the
> previous text. I believe in either case, there are grammatical problems.

I am not sure I completely understand this. Can you give some examples?

If I understand this correctly, you are asking about a compound verb in a series. Something like “Caesar came, saw, and conquered.” The verbs, as with any series, would normally be separated by commas. If the items in the series themselves had commas, then you could use semicolons. However, this is not normal for verbs. If you have items in a series followed by modifiers set off by commas, then the modifiers are virtually always modifying nouns as appositives.

>I was always taught that a colon sused for listings should not be used
>after a verb but I was never told it could be used as a continuation of a
>sentence. I thought listing were supposed to follow complete thoughts,
>generally, but not always, followed by the phrase “…the following:”

This is the case. The only time it would be used after a verb is if the verb is the last word of the sentence. For example: “We saw how fast John was running: He was terrifed.” For a list, a colon could follow the word “follow,” but we usually say “the following.” Basically, you are correct that a colon should not separate a verb or preposition from its objects. There is no reason to do so, and it can be confusing.

I hope this helps.