This chapter discusses the degrees of comparison. Section 4.1 starts with a discussion of equative, comparative and superlative forms like those given in (1). We will see that comparative and superlative forms are generally derived by morphological means, although we will also encounter certain cases in which a periphrastic comparative/superlative may or must appear. Section 4.1 also includes a discussion of the als/dan/van-phrases of comparison.

Section 4.2 discusses the syntactic distribution of the equative, comparative and superlative forms, that is, more specifically, the syntactic functions that they may perform. Section 4.3 will show that the forms in (1) exhibit various properties that can also be found with adjectives that are modified by a complex intensifying phrase. This is fairly obvious for equative phrases like (1a), given that Section 3.1.3, sub I, has shown that the equative construction even A als ... 'as A as ...' is virtually synonymous with the construction net zo A als ... 'just as A as ...' , which involves a complex intensifying phrase headed by zo . For the comparative and superlative forms, on the other hand, this is perhaps less obvious, given that these normally do not involve modification but word formation, but we will nevertheless argue that there are reasons to treat modification and comparative/superlative formation on a par, at least as far as syntax is concerned.
      Before we do all this, we want to point out that comparison is only possible with set-denoting adjectives; the examples in (2) show that relational adjectives like houten 'wooden' , evaluative adjectives like drommels 'devilish' , and, e.g., modal adjectives like vermeend 'alleged' are not eligible for it, and they will therefore not be discussed in this chapter.

Although some absolute adjectives, like dood'dead' and levend'alive', only allow comparative or superlative formation under very special conditions, the examples in (3) show that comparison generally does seem to be possible with absolute adjectives. Nevertheless this chapter will be mainly concerned with the scalar adjectives, assuming that, unless stated otherwise, scalar and absolute adjectives behave more or less the same; see Section 1.3.2.2 for a general discussion of scalar, absolute, and gradable adjectives.