Evidence of periphrastic gradation in Late Latin

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The widely accepted (and from the linguistic point of view quite logical) view that periphrastic gradation in Latin gradually replaced morphological gradation is subjected to closer scrutiny. Using the Library of Latin Texts (Brepols) database, statistics drawn from an extensive excerption of corpus material on the occurrence of periphrastic and morphological comparatives and superlatives show that the expected increase in the proportion of periphrastic forms is not detectable in Latin literary texts. Given the generally low frequencies of periphrastic comparatives and superlatives, it is indeed not possible to draw conclusions from these statistics with a high degree of certainty, and it cannot be claimed that the assumption of such an increase has been completely refuted in this way. However, it can be confidently asserted that it has no support in the extant material.