Fronter and Backer

[Rudolph C Troike]

Matthew,

        I'd certainly say this in class, right along with higher and
lower, but some intuition tells me I probably wouldn't write it, resorting
instead to the awkward locution "further front" and "further back". I
certainly could not bring myself to use "more front" or "more back". Larry
will probably tell us that "front" and "back" are not gradable per se. It
is interesting that one dimension would be gradadable and another not.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention (it's always interesting how
out-of-awareness so much of language is, even for linguists).

        Rudy

P.S. I do use (in class) Haj Ross' famous "squish" comparisons: some words
are nounier and other words are verbier.