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Are there any rules / recommendation to using comparative "larger" instead of positive "large" when there is no comparison? What are they (recommendation of course)? Examples:

"I, __, take you, __, to be my lawfully wedded(husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer..."

"The main participants in this market are the larger international banks."(Wikipedia)

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    For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer is a fixed liturgical formula, and might as well be in Latin, for all it will tell you about English comparative use. It's archaic grammar, and not normal English. The larger banks is a different matter; it divides the spectrum of bank size into two parts (necessarily with fuzzy boundaries), and refers us to the ones on the Large half (also a necessarily fuzzy set). It's just a way of sweeping away details to present a large-scale trend. And also of ignoring inconvenient facts in the service of the trend.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 17:44
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    There are innumerable circumstances when a comparative adjective is used without than. A contrasting item is often stated or implied without the explicit use of than. Of the two halves, I'll take the larger. Or I was the older brother [there are clearly two of us, and I came first].
    – bib
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 17:54
  • What @John said. By implication (for me, at least) the number of banks identified as "large" is likely to be less than those identified as "larger". That's because I envisage the former as being part of a 3-way categorisation (small, medium, and large, where most instances fall into the middle category). But probably all banks would have to be either "larger" or "smaller" (since there is no such category as "mediumer"), so half (or even more) of them could be "larger".
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 17:57
  • Right. It's like mentioning a PDE array without bothering to specify the boundary conditions or the number of independent variables.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 18:25
  • I thank all very much for explanation how I should understand the construction. Here is how I explained it before I put my question here: "'Larger' in this context means 'larger than many [of them]', or 'commonly considered as large'". I dare to rephrase my question though: "When (in what context) is it preferable? (Or should I want sometimes to say like wikipedia does in my quote?)"
    – user1380142
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 19:02

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In a non-searchable and potentially ephemeral comment to the original posting, John Lawler presented the following answer:

For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer is a fixed liturgical formula, and might as well be in Latin, for all it will tell you about English comparative use. It’s archaic grammar, and not normal English.

The larger banks is a different matter; it divides the spectrum of bank size into two parts (necessarily with fuzzy boundaries), and refers us to the ones on the ‘Large’ half (also a necessarily fuzzy set). It’s just a way of sweeping away details to present a large-scale trend. And also of ignoring inconvenient facts in the service of the trend.

This post is community wiki because it is John’s answer not my own, and so I deserve no reputation from it.

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  • OK, I consider the question as closed, and I am grateful to all contributors.
    – user1380142
    Commented Jun 28, 2014 at 22:53
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When is no 'than' preferable to what? It's safe to assume that you mean preferable to the alternative, and you managed to convey your thoughts with fewer words than if you'd said "When is comparative degree adjectives with no “than” preferable to not using 'than'". I would say that it is preferable in any situation where being succinct is desirable and the alternative is implied by the context.

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  • Why does wikipedia prefer comparative degree in my example? My question in title is: "When is {comparative degree adjectives with no “than”} preferable [to positive degree]?
    – user1380142
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 21:24
  • Can you elaborate?
    – Dave Magner
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 21:29
  • What is the difference between: "The main participants in this market are the larger international banks."(Wikipedia) and "The main participants in this market are the large international banks."
    – user1380142
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 22:32
  • To me those two sentences could have interchangeable meaning in some situations. The main difference is that the use of 'larger' makes it clear that there is some kind of comparison implied, we aren't including the smaller banks in our statement. If we say 'large' instead then it could be interpreted as saying "The main participants are the international banks, which all happen to be large".
    – Dave Magner
    Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 14:26
  • Thanks again Dave, I am glad I managed to explain question. I also all of a sudden came to a conclusion that there is a semantically similar construction in my native Russian. Reverse literal translation might have been "those international banks that are" (or "seem to be") "larger".
    – user1380142
    Commented Jul 1, 2014 at 19:48

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