Sacrificed Her Youth

Remember the last post? It was about the poem The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington? No? Click here! So I only listed down the meaning of the poem and glossary of difficult words. Oh, here's the poem:


In this post, I will discuss the language and style, as well as the main theme(s) that can be gained from the poem.


1. Language and Style

• uses ye 'olde English language: bailiff, esquire, puggish
  
• rhyme scheme : abcb (for most stanzas)
• 12 stanzas
  
• narrative of the story
• meaning is quite direct and clear
• a sense of irony when she told him that she was dead

2. Main Theme(s)

The poem basically revolves around LOVE; Love knows no bounds, Love grows with time and Sacrifices done for Love.

• love knows no bounds - the esquire's son, (despite his father only being a candidate of knighthood) falls in love with the governor's (bailiff's) daughter - and she falls in love with him too.
• love grows with time - even after SEVEN years of being apart due to him being sent for apprenticeship, both of them are still deeply in love with each other and are convinced that they are their true love.
• sacrifices done for love - she gave up her youth - 'sport and play' - to search for him in disguise of a beggar. he told her that if she was dead, he would give away his horse and go to foreign lands.
  

Well, that's all for this post (and maybe this blog).
Hope you were enlightened by this post and enjoyed both posts on the poem :)

I found the poem HERE.
The previous post can be found HERE.

Toodles ;)

And is ready to be thy bride

Hello readers!

The following is a poem that I find somewhat sweet. It's an old poem, so be wary of the language used :)

click image to see larger version of poem :D

Meaning of poem:

• A esquire's son fell in love with a bailiff's daughter
• She would not believe him in love
• His family had him apprenticed for seven years
  
• He believed that she did not think of him the whole time
• The women of Islington went out to the meadows to play
• The bailiff's daughter disguised herself and went toward London
• She met her true love and begged a coin from him
• He asked about 'the bailiff's daughter of Islington'
• She claimed that she was dead
• He said that he would give away his horse and go to foreign lands
• She tells him that she is alive and in fact, the woman speaking to him
• She announces that is ready to be his bride

Glossary

1. bailiff : governor or custodian (similar to sheriff)
   
2. esquire : a candidate for knighthood
3. coy : affectedly modest or shy (especially in a playful or provocative way)
4. countenance : the appearance conveyed by a person's face
5. puggish : messy, old-looking
   
6. bridle : headgear for a horse
7. prithee : pray thee (somewhat like 'pray, tell')

I will continue the analysis of this poem in the next post :D

References:
Poem
Definitions

Identification

Hi. So do you know how to identify the moral values of literary works?

Ahh. This time I'm going to teach you a few SIMPLE ways of identifying the moral values of a story.


1. Theme(s)

Yes, once you've identified the theme(s), it will be easy to identify the moral values.

EXAMPLE?
Theme: courage and determination bring success
Moral Value(s): 1. Be courageous in order to succeed (and/or) 2. Be determined to succeed

See? Simple enough, right? :D


2. Characteristic(s) of Character(s)

Oh I'm sure you guys can already figure this one out, right? hihi

EXAMPLE?
Character: Black Beauty
Characteristic: Loving towards mother, friends and owners
Moral value: Love your family and friends

3. Significant Event(s)

This actually works vice versa, in which you can find moral values in most significant events. On the other hand, you can also identify significant events from the moral values that it contains.

EXAMPLE?
Significant Event: Fire which James saves Black Beauty and Ginger from
Moral Value: Bravery can save lives



I hope you understand my very short guide. On the most part, this information is from me :) Hopefully if you have any other inquiries, feel free to comment :D

Image from Google Images

Acquire?

Hi readers.

Do you like learning different languages? What about the second language? I'm sure for most of the readers of this blog, English is your second language. So do you know the stages of acquiring a second language? Basically there are three stages in which you firstly go through the Native Language Effect, Interlanguage and also Communicative Competence.


1. Native Language Effect

- vital aspect of acquisition of a new language
- learner assumes that the 2nd language operates similarly to the 1st language
- can also facilitate the learning of a 2nd language - some structures of 1st language and 2nd language are similar

~This is basically when people do direct translation


2. Interlanguage

- systemic developmental process
- stage right before competence
- utilizes feedback from others

~ This is the stage which people catch on to the 2nd language, but have only grasped the basic conversational and contextual part, yet not much of the grammar and structure.


3. Communicative Competence

- able to display grammatical, pragmatic, strategic and psychomotor (pronunciation) competence
- best achieved by focusing on language use
- allow students to use language in unrehearsed context

~ In this stage, communication flows well and language is more structured - misunderstandings rarely occur



Hopefully now you know where you are in learning a second language. Fret not if you feel incompetent, there's always room for improvement :)

Reference:
Teaching by Principles - Douglas Brown

Which One?

Remember my post on homophones? Well it's THERE. I'm going to continue with a few other words that may not be homophones but are easily confused with each other.

Let's start, shall we?

1. Lose/Loose

Lose: be deprived of
Loose: not firmly or tightly placed

Do NOT write: Did you loose your trousers? Those seem lose on you.


2. Breath/Breathe

Breath: the air that you take in and let out of your lungs
Breathe: the action of taking in air and letting air out of your lungs

Do NOT write: Breath please, you seem to have lost your Breathe from all that running just now.


3. Quiet/Quite

Quiet: silent
Quite: very or fairly

Do NOT write: Even though she is quite, she is quiet an intelligent girl.


4. Desert/Dessert

Desert: vast dry area of little water and plants
Dessert: sweet food eaten at the end of a meal

Do NOT write: Would it not be such a pleasure to have desert in the dessert.

Reference:
Google Dictionary
Google Images

Inspired by:
Christine Jalleh

Huff and Puff!

Ever been confused on how to identify the literary elements in a short story/novel/poem? Ever asked yourself countless times if a theme is a main theme or a minor one? Confused which character is more important than the other? Don't know which is the point of conflict/climax?

I'm going to explain how to identify those details.

So what is a THEME?

The theme is basically what the story revolves around.
It is the issue that is most addressed in the literary work.
Another way to identify would be what the MAIN CHARACTERS face.

For example, at the end of the Harry Potter books, good prevails over evil, thus one of the themes would be poetic justice.

Let's move on the MAIN CHARACTERS, shall we?

These are the people who turn up the most in the story.
If you notice someone's been talked about more than others in the story, then that's the main character.
Keep note that a main character may be THE ANTAGONIST too.
Also, the main characters are the ones who are most affected by the plot (especially the CLIMAX).

For example, in the comic Superman, Superman and Lois Lane are the main characters.



THE ANTAGONIST, what's that, you ask?

An antagonist is technically the bad guy.
This is the person who ruins the day and creates chaos.
Keep in mind that the antagonist could revert to the end of the story and with some characters it is unsure whether they are protagonists or antagonists until the end of the story.

For example in Three Little Pigs, the antagonist is the Big Bad Wolf.



No, I did not forget to explain the CLIMAX!

This is the turning point, or the peak of the story.
When all the conflicts (i.e.: issues) are piled up and the protagonist is in a rut.
It happens right before everything is resolved.
Also remember that some stories end at the climax for the author to amount to suspense (and allow readers to create their own ending)


So, do you understand? :) Hopefully you do. I'll try continue explaining more literary jargon to you in the next post. Just post questions in the 'comments' area if you have any.

References:
Literary Elements and Devices
Google Images [images]

Box Your Ears

Hi everyone! :)

The other day I was watching (a re-run of) The Ellen Degeneres Show in which she compared knowledge with Hugh Laurie on each other's slang. Below is the video :)

Well, actually I think that as people who watch a lot of American shows, we're quite used to the American slang like 'awesome' or 'sucks', or even 'badonkadonk' for that matter :P

I found out that I am at lack of knowledge with the BRITISH SLANG. I mean, we are supposed to use British English as it is the standardized version of English, so why not we learn the slang too, in order to be good communicators (and not embarrassed when we misunderstand)? :)

1. Well let's take CHIN WAG first. For starters, I'm sure if you were to say "Fancy a chinwag?" to a random Malaysian, they'd either a) stare at you long enough for their eyeballs to fall out; of b) start imagining you actually wagging your chin at them.

(I'd probably be the latter but that's besides the point)

CHIN WAG, as he says in the video, means to talk or chat


2. Next, GIVE US A BELL. This clearly does not mean someone wants you to give them a bell. Well, not necessarily. You never know if people do really ask for bells randomly.

It basically means to give me a call. Bell is probably due to people saying 'Give me a ring' in which a phone 'rings'

So please, do not go overseas and end up sitting around not knowing where to find a bell just because you don't understand


3. NANCY BOY / NANCY means someone who is being pathetic [for example, a NANCY BOY would cry because the cookies he baked didn't turn out right]

It can also mean a gay man. I doubt you need further explanation on that.

So if someone calls you a NANCY BOY, don't be too quick to see it as a compliment for being such a good detective. No way in heaven that an English man (or woman, for that matter) is talking about Nancy Drew when they call you a NANCY BOY.


4. When someone says that something is PEANUTS, it's to say that something is cheap. Yes, I know that in the Malaysian culture, PEANUTS means easy. However, for these English people, it means cheap.

Oh the origin of this word is from the saying 'if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys' meaning that if you give a small salary, then you would definitely get less skilled workers.


So do you feel enlightened? I sure was when I read through part of the list. :D

You can find more words with their meanings in;
The Very Best of British; and also
British Slang and Dialect [fun trivia]


p/s: Box Your Ears means a slap around the head for misbehaving

Leap of Faith

I'm sure all of you have heard the song 'The Only Exception', right? Let's try analyze this song as if it were a poem :) This time we'll go a bit deeper than we went with The Walrus and The Carpenter, explaining further on the author's background and also the meaning of the poem.

When I was younger, I saw my daddy cry

And curse at the wind

He broke his own heart and I watched

As he tried to reassemble it

My momma swore that

She would never let herself forget

And that was the day that I promised

I'd never sing of love if it does not exist

But darling, you are the only exception

You are the only exception (3x)

Maybe I know, somewhere deep in my soul

That love never lasts

And we've got to find other ways to make it alone

Or keep a straight face

And I've always lived like this

Keeping a comfortable distance

And up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness

Because none of it was ever worth the risk

But you are the only exception

You are the only exception (3x)

I've got a tight grip on reality

But I can't let go of what's in front of me here

I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up

Leave me with some kind of proof, it's not a dream, oh

You are the only exception (3x)

You are the only exception (3x)

And I'm on my way to believing

Oh, and I'm on my way to believing

(Paramore, The Only Exception)


___________________________________

‘The Only Exception’ is a song that is hardly unheard of by today’s generation. The writers are Paramore’s band members Hayley Williams, Josh Farro and Taylor York; namely being the vocalist Hayley Williams.

This song tells a simple story of a girl whose parents’ divorce had wounded her in such a way that she never believed in love again. This is until, of course, the girl meets a boy who loved her and she loved up to the point that she could not help herself but to just take the leap of faith – since he is her only exception. However, a long the lines, it is clear that she is a bit sceptic on whether it’s going to work out for them. At the end, she restates her willingness to just take the risk for him.

The aim of the song is mainly to tell the typical story of sceptics in love. It tells of how one’s parents, could affect a child if they were not in love. In this case, Williams wrote this song in reminiscence of her parents who got divorced when she was young. She probably wanted to express how the divorce had affected her view on love. And supposedly now Williams has found the love of her life, and finally really believes in love.

The song moves in a slow pace, beginning from childhood, to present time. It moves in such deliberation, as if to savour every moment. The abundant repetition of the words ‘You are the only exception’ shows that the writer wants to slowly convince herself that he is the one.

References:

Paramore's The Only Exception
[image] Google Images

To play them such a trick!

Hello again :)

I just read an interesting poem, The Walrus and The Carpenter.

The Walrus and The Carpenter

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd,
because They'd eaten every one.


The Walrus leading the Oysters :)

======================================

First and foremost, keep in mind that this is a children's poem. So don't delve too deep into it or try to analyze it too greatly. Mr Carroll himself stated that it does not have any deeper meaning than to remind children not to trust strangers :)

Lewis Carroll, (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) despite his stammer, could speak to children easily. He had a love towards spending time with children. His exploration of the boundaries of sense and nonsense has inspired a number of novels.

This poem is for children to enjoy, and also for adults to relive their childhood. It was written with a rhyme scheme of abcbdb. It can be read with a cynical and quirky tone. It uses somewhat simple language and is written with curious perspective of a child.

From the lines in the 7th Stanza, we can come to the understanding that with age comes wisdom and the eldest Oyster had anticipated the consequences of coming with The Walrus and The Carpenter. People may seem nice at first but then reveal their true colours in due time.

This is a good piece of poetry which I would recommend everyone to read (not just the younger generation). It's entertaining, as well as conveys the right message :)

Till next time,

Toodles!

References:
The Walrus and The Carpenter (the poem with images)
Lewis Carroll's Biography

Shh!

Hello, people! :D

Here I am, again to talk to you about language.

So, have you ever noticed that some letters in words are left unpronounced? For example, "Physical".

These letters are called SILENT LETTERS.

Since this blog has been targeted for secondary school students, I'm going to spare you from the elaborate details. We'll just try this step by step and with simple explanations, shall we? :)

[in other words, I will not be using transcriptions]

*Oh and please note that I am only going to touch on the more common ones since there are quite a lot of these :)


Let's start with a word in a song by Miley Cyrus
1. climb (pronounced klaim)
This word consists of a silent B
- words that have a B following an M and the end of words like 'plumber' and 'comb' have silent Bs
[another point to add, don't you think it's just tiring to say 'klaimbuh' or 'plambuh'? :) ]

What about an attractive person?
2. handsome (pronounced haensum)
This word consists of a silent D
- some of the words that have this similar attribute are 'handbag', 'wednesday' and 'sandwich'
[again, saying 'haendsum' or 'wednusdey' is just too much of a fuss!]

Who saves the damsel in distress?
3. knight (pronounced nait)
This word consists of a silent K
- other examples of this are 'knock' and 'knowledge'
[now, can you really imagine someone saying "Soon the 'kuhnait' will save the damsel!"]

Another word for serenity
4. calm (pronounced kaam)
This word consists of a silent L
- similar to this; 'would', 'should' and 'talk'
[it would be a waste of saliva to say 'kalm' or 'shoold']


There are the silent P and S and others too, but these are words that people commonly make mistakes of. If you have any other inquires, don't be shy to drop a comment :)

Silent Letters :)

References:
Pronunciation - Silent Letters
[image] EduTunes with Miss Jenny

Misconceptions

Have you ever noticed that how a sentence is written could easily be perceived differently? Like the word 'drink', when a person says it, it could either be said as a question - Drink? - or a demand - Drink!! - see? When people listen to/read something, there can be misconceptions. This is post will basically explain on the study of 'speaker meaning', or in linguistic terms, PRAGMATICS.

In other terms, pragmatics is the study invisible meaning. A written example would be an ad that writes Warehouse Sale. We immediately understand that they are selling things at (or from) the said warehouse. No one in their right mind would think that people are selling warehouses.

Basically that is what we're going to study today. Are you catching on? :)

Actually, we mostly understand these things due to context. There's the linguistic context and also the physical context.

1. Linguistic context (AKA co-text) is the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence. For example:

'bat' - "I accidentally left my bat after baseball practice today"
Here, the speaker would most probably be talking about his/her baseball bat, rather than the nocturnal animal.

'trip' - "Have a nice trip"
It would have been really mean of the speaker to hope for another person falling down. Thus, the speaker was probably speaking of a journey.

2. Physical context is basically from your surroundings - what you see and hear.

From these, come words that cannot be interpreted without context. These are called diectic expressions. Out of context, statements with deixes would be vague and could cause confusions. There are three types of deixes;

1. person deixis - points to people and things
(he, these girls, it, that paper)
eg. These girls are so beautiful.
*the listener does not know who 'these girls' are unless there is a picture of them or the speaker is pointing to the girls*

2. spatial deixis - points to a location
(here, further there)
eg. Why don't you just come over here?
*the listener would not know where 'here' is unless he saw the speaker or the speaker told him/her*

3. temporal deixis - points to a time
(two days ago, now)
eg. I saw Marina two days ago.
*listeners would not know when that was if they did not know what day it was the speaker had said it*

Oh but Pragmatics is a big topic. Maybe I'll elaborate more on it in a different post :)

Hope you understand the fundamentals of Pragmatics so far.

References:
The Study of Language - George Yule
Dictionary.com

But They Sound The Same?

Hello! Have you ever wrongly used words which sound the same but are spelt differently? Like there/their/they're or maybe accept/except?

Or maybe, you don't notice that you've been making these mistakes..

First things first, don't be shy. I make mistakes like these sometimes too :)

But let's get back to the topic now. What are these words? These words are HOMOPHONES!

Homophones are words which have the same pronunciation, but different spellings (or written forms)

Let's go straight to examples so that you can understand better.

1. your/you're

your signifies belonging. whereas you're is a contraction of you are

Misuse: Your stepping on you're own skirt.


2. pail/pale

this: is a pail.

this: is a pale girl.

Misuse: Why are you so pail? Did you lose your pale again?

(oh but losing a pail is not a laughing matter)


3. to/two/too

to is used as a preposition
(yes, to describe ALL the definitions of 'to' would take up a new blog post. you can read about it HERE)
two is more than one
too means very

Misuse: I believe that to is always better than one but too say that would be two much, wouldn't it?


4. than/then

than is used to compare, while then refers to a time in the past/future

Misuse: I love my high school years, I used to be taller then Amar back than.


5. meat/meet

this is MEAT
meet is basically to see (or to come in contact with)

Misuse: Did you meat the butcher for the meet this morning?

Okay so that's all for this time. If you're confused with any other homophones, please just drop a comment or maybe something in the chatbox :)

Idea from;
The Parents

Inspired by;
The Oatmeal
Christine Jalleh

References;
The Study of Language - George Yule
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Substitutes

Okay so remember the last post about adjectives? So, what are adjectives? Quickly scroll down now and find out before I scold you! :D

Now that we've learnt that adjectives describe nouns and pronouns, do you know what pronouns are? I'll give you a clue. They have something to do with nouns. So...?



You're right! Pronouns are substitutes for nouns!

Great. Now we've gotten that out of the way, can you name the types of pronouns there are?

1. Personal Pronouns
2. Reflexive Pronouns
3. Possessive Pronouns
4. Demonstrative Pronouns
5. Indefinite Pronouns
6. Interrogative Pronouns
7. Relative Pronouns

So, do you know any of these?

It's okay. We'll take it on one by one, okay? Now, that's the spirit!

1. Personal Pronouns
- divided into subject and object pronouns
- subject pronouns = I, you, he, she, it, we, they
- object pronouns = me, you, him, her, it, us, them
- e.g.: You like me, but I love him.

2. Reflexive Pronouns
- refers back to the subject of the verb
- myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves, yourselves
- e.g.: All of you better prepare yourselves for activities that I myself had prepared.

3. Possessive Pronouns
- shows ownership
- mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
- e.g.: This pencil is not yours, hers nor his. It is mine.

4. Demonstrative Pronouns
- refers to something that the reader/ audience is already familiar with
- this, that, these those
- e.g: This is her hat, that is mine, and those are theirs.

5. Indefinite Pronouns
- used when not referring to any particular person or thing
- someone, somebody, everyone, everybody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, something, everything, anything, nothing
- e.g.: Someone told me that everyone was going to the party but when I got there I found out no one had come.

6. Interrogative Pronouns
- ask questions
- what, which, whose, who, whom
-e.g.: Which is your umbrella? Whose is this?

7. Relative Pronouns
- introduce an extra piece
- who, whom, whose, which
- e.g.: To whom did you address it?

Do you understand all of this? Oh please do remember that pronouns can stand alone, as opposed to determiners*. What are determiners*, you might wonder? Well, that's a different blog post all together. ;)

Here's a video from Grammar Rock on pronouns :)

Reference(s):
Focus on Grammar - Anne Seaton

Describing Nouns

Mariam. She's a handsome girl. Dark hair, oval face, large brown eyes - she had all that. Everyone envies her beauty and charm. However, if only she was nice, she would be much more attractive.

Okay, so can you guess the topic that I'm going to present? You've got it: ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives are words that describe nouns* and pronouns*. There are a few types of adjectives, adjectives of size, colour, shape, and many more.

So, can you find all the adjectives in the paragraph above?
(try first, and don't cheat :P )













Mariam. She's a handsome girl. Dark hair, oval face, large brown eyes - she had all that. Everyone envies her beauty and charm. However, if only she was nice, she would be much more attractive.

*adjectives are in bold and dark red


As you can see, most of the adjectives come before nouns and pronouns.


A few examples of different types of adjectives:
Size - large, miniscule, etc.
Colour - red, blue, green, etc.
Shape - triangle, round, etc.

Now that you know that, the table below shows you how to put the adjectives in the right order:

	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Origin	Material	Purpose
a	silly		young			English			man
a		huge		round			metal		bowl
a		small			red			sleeping	bag

adapted from: 410 Grammar

Got that? It's simple, really. Have you ever seen words like "youngest", "worse", and "more delicious" ? Those are adjectives which are of different degrees of comparison. Don't understand? Let's make it simpler.

There are three degrees of comparison for adjectives: positive, comparative, superlative.
For example:

Positive	nice	beautiful	good
Comparative	nicer	more beautiful	better
Superlative	nicest	most beautiful	best

See what I meant now? Well, these are called gradable adjectives. There are adjectives that cannot be graded by such comparisons. (i.e.: dead, cotton, impossible) An example of something you should never do is say; Harith's shirt is more cotton than mine. However, it is possible for you to change it with cottony. These are called non-gradable adjectives.

Note: For the use of comparative adjectives, there are two forms; _____er than and more _____ than. As for superlatives; ______est and most _______





References:
Guide to Grammar and Writing (Adjectives)
410 Grammar
Dictionary.com