Quicklier?

[DAK]

I didn't hear this, but, knowing
the proclivities of some on NPR,
it could well just be word play.

Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> a. murie asks
>  >Heard on NPR this morning (Jean Cochran, newsreader): [ sthg. being
>  >repositioned to move] "quicklier."  (Context reconstructed from
>  >memory.)  I can't remember ever hearing "quicklier" before.  Is it
>  >standard in some dialect?
>
> as the author of an article entitled "Quicker, more quickly,
> *quicklier", I have some interest in the answer to this question.
>
> forms like "quicklier" are certainly not widespread.  they
> occasionally occur in speech, as blends or perhaps as avoidances of
> adverbial uses of "quick".  but i don't see why the formation couldn't
> have established itself in some group of english speakers, as a
> generalization of the scope of -er comparison.  (but it's not an
> especially likely usage in non-standard varieties of english, almost
> all of which are fond of bare-adjective adverbials; in such varieties,
> "quicker" is the natural comparative adverbial.)
>
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)