English prepositions

I hope I may be allowed a post that has nothing to do with Japanese, since this doesn't really fit the topic of the other blog I contribute to, either.

Geoffrey Pullum at Language Log has an interesting reflection on the English preposition furth. Like Dr. Pullum, I was unaware of this preposition, though of course I know the related form forth. His post is informative and interesting, and I leave it to you to see what he has to say about the preposition system.

One line in particular caught my attention, though.

The only sign of furth [in the Oxford English Dictionary] is as an early alternate spelling [of forth], and never with of. (Note, though, that as Jim Smith points out to me, all modern English dialects have preserved the comparative and superlative forms further and furthest.)

That is, while most dialects do not have the preposition furth of, (as Scottish English apparently does), all dialects have further and furthest.

What struck me is the suggestion that further and furthest are comparative and superlative forms of the preposition furth.

English prepositions don't usually have comparative or superlative forms, do they? The Oxford English Dictionary (not a work of grammar, I know, but still) says:

comparative, a. (n.) 2. Gram. Applied to that derived form of an adjective or adverb used, in comparing two objects of thought, to express a higher degree of the quality or attribute denoted by the simple word, as tru-er, often-er (or to the periphrasis used in the same sense, as more true, more often); the adjective or adverb being then said to be in the comparative degree.

This would seem to be a piece of counter-evidence to Pullum's argument that forth is not an adverb. (Though I do think that adverb is itself sort of a wastebasket category, sweeping up any words that don't fit other parts of the grammatical taxonomy.)

Try making comparative forms of your favorite prepositions: *more around? *more between? These sound wrong to me.

Of course there might be more about, but only in the Japanese sense.

There, I did get the topic back to Japanese and English.