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A 'qualitiative' adjective is one whose meaning compares in
English. Qualitative adjectives also occur in predicate position, form
adverbs and nouns. For example, громкий may occur in predicate
position (Его голос громок 'His voice is loud'), it may be used as an
adverb (Она говорить громко 'She talks loudly') and has a nominal
form (промкость 'loudness, volume'). So, громкий has a set of
comparative forms: громче, более громкий, самый
громкий.
Adjectives without these properties (relational adjectives)
may not be compared. For example, the adjectives биологический
'biological', государственный 'state, federal', городской
'city, urban' do not have these properties and therefore are not
susceptible to comparison. Even in English we can't say 'our decay is more
urban than yours' or 'our government is more federal than yours'. But we can
say 'louder', 'loudly' and 'loudness'.
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