Degree: degree of comparison
| Values: | Abs | Cmp | Pos | Sup | Dim | Aug |
Degree of comparison is typically an inflectional feature of some adjectives and adverbs. Modern Greek marks morphologically the positive, comparative and absolute superlative degree while the superlative degree of adjectives is composite (definite article + comparative degree).
Pos: positive, first degree
This is the base form that merely states a quality of something, without comparing it to qualities of others. The adverbs express a manner.
Examples
Adjectives
- νέος άντρας “young man”
- άσχημο παιδί “ugly child”
Adverbs
- έξυπνα, καλά “cleverly, good”
Cmp: comparative, second degree
The quality of one object is compared to the same quality of another object. The adverbs express a comparison of manners.
Examples
Adjectives
- ο άντρας είναι νεώτερός μου “the man is younger than me”
- το παιδί είναι ασχημότερο απο τον πατέρα “the child is more ugly than the father”
Adverbs
- εξυπνότερα, καλύτερα “more cleverly, better”
- πιο “more” (the adverb is used to form composite comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs: ο άντρας είναι πιο νέος από εμένα “the man is younger than me”), η Μαρία μιλάει πιο δυνατά από τον Γιώργο “Maria speaks more loudly than George”
Sup: superlative, third degree
The quality of an object is compared to the same quality of all other objects within a set. It is formed periphrastically with the definite article and the comparative form of the adjective or with the adverb πιο “more” and the positive form of the adjective; no second entity introduced with the preposition από “than” is introduced, instead the group in which the comparison is valid is expressed in some other way, e.g. a noun phrase marked with the genitive case.
Examples
Adjectives
- το ωραιότερο σπίτι του χωριού είναι της Ελένης / το πιο ωραίο σπίτι του χωριού είναι της Ελένης“the most nice house in the village is that of Helen’s”
- το ψηλότερο βουνό της Ελλάδας είναι ο Όλυμπος / το πιο ψηλό βουνό της Ελλάδας είναι ο Όλυμπος “Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece”
Abs: absolute superlative
The adjective expresses morphologically that the studied quality of the given object is so strong that there is hardly any other object exceeding it. The quality is not actually compared to any particular set of objects. The adverbs express the highest degree of a manner.
Examples
Adjectives
- Η Ελένη ήταν ωραιότατη. “Helen was indescribely beautiful.”
Adverbs
- ωραιότατα “best”, ευγενέστατα “most politely”
Modern Greek expresses degree modification of nouns, adjectives, past participles and adverbs with a set of prefixes and suffixes (and a set of syntactic means); suffixation may change the gender of the noun, e.g., χέρι “hand” (neutral) vs. χερούκλα “large hand” (feminine), άντρας “man” (masculine) vs. αντράκι “little/insignificant/bully man” (neuter).
All affixation cases are assigned the lemma of the original word and the feature el-DegreeMod takes one of the two available values, namely Dim or Aug.
Dim: diminutive
Examples
- Nouns (suffixation)
- χταποδ-άκι / chtapodaki “little octopus”
- πορτ-ούλα / portoula “little door”
- φων-ίτσα / fonitsa “little voice”
- εικον-ίδιο / ikonidio “little picture”
- Adjectives (suffixation)
- μικρ-ούτσικος / mikroutsikos “smallish”
- κιτριν-ούλης / kitrinoulis “yellowish”
- ασπρ-ουλιάρης / asprouliaris “whitish”
- Passive participles (prefixation)
- μισο-δαγκωμένος / misodagkomenos “slightly bitten”
- ψιλο-θυμωμένος / psilothimomenos “slightly angry”
- Adverbs (suffixation)
- καλ-ούτσικα / kaloutsika “slightly good”
Aug: augmentative
Examples
- Nouns (suffixation)
- τρυπ-άρα / tripara “large hole”
- ψευτ-αράς / pseftaras “great lier”
- χερ-ούκλα/ cheroukla “large hand”
- Adjectives (prefixation)
- κατά-μαυρος / *katamavros “stark black”
- ολό-φωτος / olofotos “very bright”
- Verbs (prefixation)
- πολυ-έρχομαι / poli-erchome “to come very often (temporal)”
- πολυ-λέω / poli-leo “to say very often (temporal)”
- πολυ-νοιάζομαι / poli-niazome “to care intensively (intensity)”
- Passive participles (prefixation)
- κατα-κουρασμένος / katakourasmenos “very tired”
- χιλιο-ταλαιπωρημένος / chiliotalaiporimenos “exhausted, worn out”
Degree in other languages: [af] [bej] [bg] [cs] [cy] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [ga] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ka] [ky] [la] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [quc] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urj] [uz]