Pedantic pet peeve: improper use of comparative form.

[Deep13]

Here's how it works.

Basic form of adjective when no comparison is made.
I'm getting old.

Comparative form when exactly two subjects are being compared.
You're older than me.

Superlative form when more than two subjects are compared.
McCain is one of the oldest men in America.

Do not use the comparative when only one subject or group of subjects is considered.
right: AARP represents old Americans.
wrong: AARP represents older Americans. (Older than what?)

Do not use the comparative when more than two subjects or groups are considered.
right: We have special seating for some of our oldest members.
wrong: We have special seating for some of our older members.

[redqueen]

1. "You're older than me."

*snort*

[Deep13]

2. Well, maybe not you specifically.

I don't actually know.:hi:

[MrCoffee]

3. What's so funny, Granny?

:shrug:

[redqueen]

4. Oh *sigh*

Should be: "You're older than I."

*sigh*

[MrCoffee]

6. Fine, fine

I'll get off your yard.

Sheesh.

[Deep13]

8. Isn't it objective?

Isn't it "You are older than her" rather than "You are older than she?" And if it's subjective, don't you need a verb for that subject? "You're older than I am." ?????????? :shrug:

[Lasher]

22. No, but you're close.

"You are older than she." is correct because "she" is the subject of "is", which is understood.

Now don't even get me started on pronouns in the predicate nominative: "It is I!"

Most of us don't communicate this way even if we know better. But since it came up I just had to chime in.

[Deep13]

27. *shrug* Live and learn, I guess.

I've been doing that wrong all this time. :shrug:

Thanks for the explanation.

[pink-o]

28. This is the problem with being pedantic....

Ultimately, we're gonna make our own mistakes and get judged right back.

I was going off on "Jeopardy" a couple nights ago because the answer was that "bicep" was ***LATIN*** for a two-headed muscle. Hello!!! I expect more from those guys with all their researchers. So I was ranting to my fellow pedant, and I said: "Anyone knows that the prefix "bi" is Greek, and the Latin version is "di". Like Diametric or Dichotomy."

My friend gently pointed out that those two words have Greek roots also.

Oops.

[Deep13]

29. I wasn't judging anyone. Just objecting to a particular grammatical pet peeve.

And I would rather someone point out my errors so I will stop making them. I don't want people to cringe every time they read an error in what I write.

[Lasher]

30. A healthy attitude.

There is no shame in being ignorant; all of us are to a degree. The only shame is in making no improvement on the condition.

[Ron Green]

5. Are you older than her??

Or is it she?

[Deep13]

7. I dunno.

:shrug:

I find DUers come in a wide range of ages.

[hippywife]

9. I think in your examples

the comparison is implied and the statements you have labeled as "wrong" are perfectly fine. :D

[yawnmaster]

11. They may have an implied comparison but it leads to a vagueness,

and is a poor example of writing.
old Americans = generally accepted to be over retirement, 60ish perhaps.
older Americans = implies older than some age - what? older than teenagers?
It's a poor writing style and definitely not perfectly fine, not among better writers, at least.

[hippywife]

12. But just saying "old"

really is quite blunt and rude. Really.

[yawnmaster]

13. and saying older blunts the bluntness?

up front and open is best.
Once you have accepted an AARP membership, you are old...
or to be less blunt, you are older than those that aren't old.

(of course by "you" I don't mean you you but the general you, unless, of course, you want you to mean you and you fit the requirements...otherwise its a generic you)

[hippywife]

15. Do you spend much time with the senior population?

I work with them everyday. Trust me when I say that just calling them old is rude.

[yawnmaster]

17. you assume that I am not a member of the senior population?

call them senior then, older instead of old is just a poor substitute.

[yawnmaster]

14. also...saying old isn't rude. Saying fucking old might be, though.

[hippywife]

16. And you are seriously proving

the pedantic part of this issue. :eyes:

[yawnmaster]

18. As it should be proved! It was a premise of the OP! eom

[yawnmaster]

10. Well I think there is an implication here...

"AARP represents older Americans."
older Americans implies that there is a set of Americans that is older than those that are not as old as the set in question.
Of course this implication might be recursive to the point where AARP ends up representing only two people, the two oldest people in America, since they are older than all the rest (two because Americans is plural)- no one is older so those are the ones represented by AARP.

[Captain Hilts]

19. "You're older than I (am)." nt

[Captain Hilts]

20. GREAT post, BUT, I wouldn't use age as an example because we use 'old/older/oldest' very delicately

because of what it implies.

Try the same trill with 'dark' or something like that.

[Deep13]

26. I used age because that's where I notice this most often.

I guess euphemistic language also bugs me. Age is a pretty objective thing, unlike "better" or "more attractive". :hi:

[quakerboy]

21. What makes it incorrect may also make it effective.

Older leaves vagueness, which may be a desired goal. Think about it. Who wants to be "old"? Older leaves room to ask "older than what", and thus to insert your own preferred answer. You used the example of teenagers, but in reality that is a good example to use. Being older than a teenager is not so bad. Being old like John McCain, that might be a bit of a mental drag for a lot of people.

By leaving it vague, the reader and is able to fill in their own preferred answer to that question. Thus a 49 year old may fill in "than dirt" and suppose themselves far superior than these crusty old AARP people, while 16 years later at 65 they may change their mental answer to "than sloppily dressed pierced green haired punk ass teenagers" and suppose themselves far superior to these immature non AARP people.

So perhaps incorrect is more effective. And were I to argue as a utilitarian, I might then say that the incorrect is thus proper.

[Fridays Child]

23. More people do that, all the time.

:P

[Manifestor_of_Light]

24. "Unique" and "perfect" cannot be compared.

There is no such thing as very unique, most unique, etc.

Where the Founding Fathers got "in order to form a more Perfect Union", I really have no idea.


:shrug:

[nuxvomica]

25. I disagree with the 3rd, 4th and 5th rules

I was taught that, strictly speaking, the superlative should be applied to only the end points of the continuum and the comparative should apply to everything in between. Therefore, the superlative usually resolves to a number of one or a precisely singular attribute.

Correct:
McCain is the oldest man in America. (Correct usage but it may not be factual.)
McCain is one if the older men in America. (Correct in that one multiple-member group is being compared, implicitly, to another.)
AARP represents old Americans. (Correct but ambiguous. It sounds like AARP represents people who have passed on.)
AARP represents older Americans.
We have special seating for some of our older members.

Incorrect:
McCain is one of the oldest men in America. (This is correct if this group of oldest men were all born at exactly the same time and no one is older than them.)
We have special seating for some of our oldest members. (Again, correct if the "oldest members" were all born at the same time and there is no one older in the group.)

I don't think even the "incorrect" examples are bad usage, just not very strict usage. But the comparison implicit in the usages of "older" is not only correct but preferred.

[lunatica]

31. That descriptive language is made deliberately to soften the word old

It's PC and that's how language evolves. The act of being old is something Americans have a very hard time dealing with. The word old has become something to avoid since it is believed to be an insult now.

Language evolves all the time. Try reading Old English, or the Canterbury Tales. Try reading books that were first printed in the American Colonies. It happens

[trof]

32. OK, I'll chime in. What is "old", anyway?

As it applies to the chronological age of Homosapiens?

When I was in my 20s I thought a guy in his 50s was 'old'.
In my 40s it slid to 60-somethings.
Now that I'm in my late 60s, 80 seems 'old' to me.
But I also realize that by most popularly accepted definitions of 'old', 'senior', 'older', and even 'aged', I fit the bill.

But I still don't feel 'old', although I know that I am.
Go figure.
:shrug: