Comparisons
Implicit Comparisons
Tatari Faran uses the comparatives puru (more) and sutu
(less) to make comparisons.
They may be placed in adjectival position in an NP to indicate a comparative
quantity:
More people arrived here.
Less people went with him.
I want more food.
They may be placed after an adjective to express a comparative quality:
And then a more handsome young man (than before) stood up.
The less handsome young man sat down.
The particle ke is used when the quality being compared is not
stated:
Explicit Comparisons
The above comparisons are implicit, in that the standard being compared
against is not explicitly stated and must be inferred from context. An explicit
comparison is made by adding an originative or receptive NP to an adjectival
statement.
A positive comparison is made by adding a receptive NP as the standard of
comparison:
The first girl is prettier than she.
The older brother is more mature than the younger brother.
A negative comparison is made by adding an originative NP as the standard
of comparison, and negating the finalizer:
The younger sister is less mature than the older sister.
The young man is less fat than the chief.
Temporal Comparisons
Explicit comparisons that involve differences in time use the following
construction:
The harvest this year is bigger than last year.
Progressive Comparisons
The particle kumai (a contraction of ke and umai)
is used for indicating a progressively increasing or decreasing quality or
quantity.
She runs faster and faster.
He runs slower and slower.
The girl is [becoming] less and less pretty.
Notice that the finalizer is negated when the comparison is negative, just
as with explicit comparisons.
Increasing or decreasing quantities are indicated by combining puru
kumai or sutu kumai with the partitive case of the noun:
There are less and less people there.
There are more and more people there.
There are less and less people there.
(Note that in the second and third examples, sutu acts as the head
of an NP, not as an adverb modifying the verb. The finalizer is not negated
with negative comparisons in this case. This should not be confused with the
case when puru or sutu is modifying the verb.)
Superlative Comparisons
Superlative comparisons involving inanimate objects are expressed by using
kaman (everything
, all things
) as the standard of
comparison. Positive qualities are generally expressed as positive comparisons,
while negative qualities are generally expressed as negative comparisons.
The stone is the biggest of all.
The stone is the smallest of all.
Superlative comparisons involving people are expressed using faan
as the standard of comparison.
The girl is the prettiest of all (of us).
The young man is most foolish of all (of us).
Sometimes a superlative is expressed boastfully by using huna as
the standard of comparison:
(Our) older brother is the tallest of all!
(Lit. taller than all of you!)
A negative comparison using mana as the standard expresses a humble
admission:
Your older brother is the tallest of all.
(Lit. taller than all of us.)
Last updated 14 Apr 2023.
