看到这样一个句子: It’s the darlingest puppy I ever saw. 这是我见过的最可爱的小狗。 觉得句子中的 darlinigest 很奇怪,难道以 -ing 结尾的形容词也能用 -est 构成最高级吗? darling 的最高级到底是 darlingest 还是 most darling? 同时它的比较级呢?是 darlinger 还是 more darling?
非常巧,我在张道真的《初级英语词典》上查到了你的这个句子:
It’s the darlingest puppy I ever saw. 这是我见过的最可爱的小狗。
但是对于这个用法,我也持怀疑态度,因为以ing结尾的分词形容词原则上是不能通过加词尾er, est 来构成比较级和最高级的。比如剑桥大学出版社出版的《英语教师语法》(Ron Cowan原著)就有这样的说明:
Participial adjectives have comparative and superlative forms only with more and most and with less and least. They cannot add -er and -est, as is illustrated by (6b) and (6d).
(6) a. That was the most amazing performance I've ever witnessed.
b. *That was the amazingest performance I've ever witnessed.
c. When she heard that the plane was overdue she became even more worried.
d. *When she heard that the plane was overdue she became even worrieder.
e. I couldn't be less concerned.
f. Of the many solutions to this problem, his is the least promising.