0 A gradable adjective or adverb is one that can be used in the comparative or superlative, or that can be qualified by words such as 'very' or 'quite'. --
1 (of adjectives and adverbs) able to be used with words like "more" and "less," or having different forms that show this: --
There is significant use of gradable adjectives: normative ("good," "bad"), comparative ("better," "inferior") and superlative ("finest," "best") but few hints as to how members are arriving at these positions.
The distinction between identifying and intensifying such is not determined by such per se, but by whether the noun phrase is seen as gradable or not.
However, for four-year-olds, the mean frequency of synthetic comparative choice for gradable monosyllabics did not significantly differ from chance, t(17)=1.44, p=0.168.
Gradable properties are connected to notions that express gradation in one way or another.
Thus, dead and alive aren't gradable; nor will they readily permit modification.
In other words, they assume gradable predicates such as long and open to carry set meaning specifications and set scale structures.
Semantic similarity and dissimilarity are gradable variables, yet there are no gradable truth values to accompany intermediate semantic similarity and dissimilarity.
They begin listing comparative forms, which, for the most part, will be for high frequency gradable monosyllabic adjectives and will be synthetic.
