ISSN 2239-978X ISSN 2240-0524 Journal of Educational and Social Research MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol. 4 No.2 April 2014 22 Issues of Gradability in Albanian Language Traditional Studies Albana Deda (Ndoja), Ph.D. University of Tirana, Faculty of History and Philology, Department of Linguistics, albanandoja@hotmail.com Daniela Hasa, Ph. D. University of Tirana, Faculty of Foreign Languages, English Department, hasadaniela@gmail.com Doi:10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p22 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. Keywords: gradability, absolute, relative, comparative degree, adjective, adverbs, presupposition, pragmatic context, semantic level 1. Insights on the Category of Degree from Various Sources The traditional category of degree in Albanian language is considered as a process which is a characteristic of word classes such as adjectives and adverbs. If we refer to the main university text, mainly the publication of the Academy of Sciences of Albania, Grammar I (2002:172), we notice that the degree is considered as a morphological grammatical category which expresses “... the degree to which a certain feature of a given object is displayed...”. The scholar Ali Dhrimo (1972:148), who is also the main contributor of this chapter in the boook Grammar I, in one of his articles concerning the definition of the category of degree, refers to German and Russian literature when mentioning the definition given by Ahmanova, mainly: “The degree is the notion of scale when defining the semantic content of one or the other category of words” (We can see that the concept is quite wide in this definition and more restricted than the first.) On the other hand, Dhrimo (1972:148) refers to the German scholar Jung who considers the category of degree as “a specific change that the adjective undergoes and which allows for the distinction between the adjective and the noun”. (Nevertheless, this definition is secondary as compared to the first two, since it considers this category as a formal phenomenon). One of the well known French grammar “Le bon usage” (Maurice Grevisse, DUCULO, 1980) gives the following definition with regard to the category of degree, “a quality which is displayed as the most dominant one in a higher or