Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 285deglutinationaphesisdegree (also comparison, gradation)All constructions which express a comparison properly fall under the category of degree;it generally refers to a morphological category of adjectives and adverbs that indicates acomparative degree or comparison to some quantity. There are three levels of degree: (a)positive, or basic level of degree: The hamburgers tasted good; (b) comparative, whichmarks an inequality of two states of affairs relative to a certain characteristic: The steakswere better than the hamburgers; (c) superlative, which marks the highest degree ofsome quantity: The potato salad was the best of all; (d) cf. elative (absolute superlative),which marks a very high degree of some property without comparison to some other stateof affairs: The performance was most impressive ( equative).Degree is not grammaticalized in all languages through the use of systematicmorphological changes; where such formal means are not present, lexical paraphrases areused to mark gradation. In modern Indo-European languages, degree is expressed either(a) synthetically by means of suffixation (new: newer: (the) newest); (b) analytically bymeans of particles (anxious’. more/most anxious); or (c) through suppletion (suppletivism), i.e. the use of different word stems: good: better: (the) best.ReferencesHellan, L. 1981. Towards an integrated analysis of comparatives. Tübingen.Klein, E. 1980. A semantics for positive and comparative adjectives. Ling&P 4. 1–45.Pinkham, C. 1982. The formation of comparative classes. Dissertation, Bloomington, IN.Stassen, L. 1985. Comparison and universal grammar. Oxford.Von Stechow, A. 1984. Comparing semantic theories of comparison. JoS 3. 1–77.deictic expression [Grk deiknýnai ‘to show’](also indexical expression)Term adopted by C.S. Peirce from formal logic for linguistic expressions that refer to thepersonal, temporal, or spatial aspect of any given utterance act and whose designation istherefore dependent on the context of the speech situation. Among the many differentkinds of deictic expressions are the personal pronouns (I, you, etc.), adverbial expressions(here, there, etc.), and the demonstrative pronouns (this, that, etc.). In contrast to propernames ( proper nouns) and definite descriptions, which refer to real objects and