Issues of Gradability in Albanian Language Traditional Studies

Abstract

This paper is about some structures of the comparative degrees unspecified in the book of Grammar I of the Albanian Academy of Sciences. A considerable number of grammar books deal mostly with formal examples referring particularly to some elements of a synthetic or analytic character, which are the classical cases of these categories. However, we think that this process has not been studied from the semantic approach, at least in our theoretical studies. The cases, where we may not find the classical structure, for instance of a comparative degree, are numerous, nevertheless semantically it is obvious the fact that there is a comparison process in a particular structure, such as the example taken from Albanian, “Kjo ndërtesë është e madhe, por kjo tjetra është gjigande” (This is a tall building but the other is huge). While studying the classification treated in our grammar, we think that there are some particular groups of the comparative degree, which are not described sufficiently, such as “shkalla krahasore e ultësisë” (the comparative degree of descending) where there is not any difference between the relative and superlative degree of descending progression. For example Ai është më pak i lodhur se unë; Ai është më pak i lodhur nga të gjithë. (He is less tired than me. He is less tired than all persons). The majority of examples to be found in the grammar books are affirmative statements. Whenever there are negative statements, the structure of the comparative degree of ascending semantically imply the comparative degree of descending, as it is the case in this particular example, Ai nuk është aq i lumtur sa unë (He is not as happy as I am). As a result this paper aims to characterize gradability as the main characteriscs of adjectives based on the semantic level. A similar methodology includes other cases which have not been mentioned before by the previous traditions. In this way the number of adjectives having the ability to be gradable is increased and secondly, it clarifies the semantic aspect and the structure of its realization along its scale.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p22