Dear Mr. S:
You wrote:
>
> One page from your site www.englishplus.com/grammar/00000032.htm listed the
> word “less” as a positive adjective, with “less” and “least” being its
> comparative and superlative forms.
>
> I cannot think of an example in which “less” is used in a NON-COMPARATIVE
> sense. Can you give me an example?
>
> Thanks.
>
Good question. Less and lesser are often synonymous. However, less in the non-comparative sense is often used as a noun, so “Not that I loved Caesar the less” or “the lesser of two evils.” Less also can be used in the sense of “minus” as “a year less a month.”
This might be worth adding to the note at the bottom of page 32.
Hello again!
>
> I really appreciate your prompt answer. ( We have been debating whether the
> word “less” can be used as an adjective in the NON-COMPARATIVE 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).
>
> “Not that I loved Caesar the less” (COMPARATIVE adjective)
It is derived from the comparative, but it is not used comparatively in this sentence.
> “the lesser of the two evils” (“lessER” is used, but not “less”)
This could go either way, but lesser is more common in this sense. “Less” by itself can mean not as/so much or inferior. Granted, in Latin inferior was comparative, but it is not in English. That is what Shakespeare has Brutus
say in “Not that I loved Caesar the less.”
> “a year less a month” (verb?)
This is an adjective. It modifies “year.” My Funk & Wagnall’s gives that example as an adjective.
>
> Is it possible that the word “less” can not be used as an adjective in the
> positive form?
I believe the above examples show it can.
>
> The fight in the office is about the following sentence:
> “You eat too less.”
>
> I believe that “too less” here is not grammatical. I think this is a “too +
>
> there — I did not think that “less” is an adjective in the positive form.
> But your page lists “less” in the positive adjective column.
In this case you are correct because in this sentence the positive form is not less but little. The sentence should read “You eat too little.”
>
> Thanks for listening and thanks again for the prompt answer.
>
>
This actually shows the way the language has changed over time. In old English, prior to 1066, less was always comparative. By 1500 this was no longer the case. This also has happened to other words.
Originally there were nigh, near, and next. We still use all three words but near and next have not their original comparative and superlative meaning in virtually all cases. Indeed, now we say near, nearer, and nearest. Next
means “adjacent to,” and nigh usually means nearly.
Similarly there were late, latter, and last. Now late is one word with later and latest. Latter usually just means “second of two” and has lost in most cases the sense of lateness. Last has taken on a different meaning as well.
It appears that the same kind of thing has happened to “less,” but only sometimes.
Dear Mr. S:
You wrote:
>
> 1.) You still have not given me an example — an example from modern
> English, acceptable to any flavour of English — in which the word “less” is
> used in a positive form (excluding usage DERIVED from the comparative.) I
> would be happy with examples in the form of any common adjective usage:
> two long hours, three big houses, five red cars — six less
> as long as the Mississippi, as far as the eye could see, — as less as <> noun / noun phrase >, as less as < clause >
> too small, not deep enough — * too less? *not less enough?
>
The only meaning according to your definition would be in the sense of “minus,” as “four days less two hours.”
>
> 2.) About “Not that I loved Caesar the less”
> :It is derived from the comparative, but it is not used
> :comparatively in this sentence.
> Can you instead give me an example in which “less” is used, BUT NOT DERIVED
> from the comparative?
>
> Is it correct to understand that Brutus meant to say that he did not love
> Caesar any less than he did others / someone else? He could not have meant
> “Not that I loved Caesar the little,” right?
Right. Your point makes sense, in that except for the case above, the modern use of less still suggests a comparison even if a direct comparison using “Than” is not used.
He would have said “I loved Caesar a little.” Comparisons and superlatives that take articles normally take “the.”
>
> I understand that there is the structure “the + < adjective in the positive
> form” in modern English. Some examples are: “the rich,” “the poor,” and
> “the young.” These structures could behave like nouns in sentences. The
> string “the less” in the Caesar example is NOT one of those. Brutus was not
> saying that he did not love “Caesar the little”, right?
Yes. Usually with the superlative, they are still clearly adjectives or adverbs, but not always. Indeed, our e-mail newsletter has been carrying a series written by a retired English teacher who says that in some cases it
would be more realistic to scrap the Latin-language-based grammar in describing English. One case is the concept of predicate nominatives and adjectives because a lot of times we cannot honestly distinguish the two as
they could in Latin.
>
> 3) About “the less of the two evils”
> Can you say “the less of the evil” or “the less of the five evils” We
> cannot say those things, right? I think the reason is because in those
> examples, the comparison becomes unclear. So “the less of the two evils” is
> a comparative usage, right?
Right. Less and lesser are both used and in many cases mean essentially the same thing. Less suggests size, lesser suggests degree.
>
> 4) About “a year less two months”
> The phrase “less two months” is adjectival in nature and it modifies “year.”
> But we cannot just say that “less” is an adjective to “year.” What is “a
> less year”? Just because we can say “a year minus two years” we cannot say
> that “minus” is an adjective to “year”, right?
>
Yes, it is. Minus actually does derive from Latin where it is an adjective also.
>
> Thanks again.
By the way, your written expression is excellent. I would never have guessed that you were not a native English speaker.