As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take the examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment were contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one be a penny the stupider.
These words are from E. M. Forster.
Please explain the underline. What is meant by penny the stupider.
No one would be a penny the stupider means that no one would be any more stupid if they could get certain jobs without the prerequisite of exam-measured education.
Does anyone else agree with it?
Normally, nowadays, we're used to finding adverbial "the" only in "the older the wiser" construction and its variants, in which one adverbial "the" ties in with another.
In slightly older English, however, adverbial "the" was found before comparative words even outside that construction. This is the case in the Forster example.
In order to interpret sentences in which adverbial "the" introduces a comparative term, you need to look at the context and find what it relates to. For example:
He answered grammar questions all day, and he was not a penny the richer.
In that sentence, the "the" in "the richer" is adverbial "the." In order to interpret it, you need to look at the context. It relates to the first independent clause.
Without adverbial "the," the second independent clause would bear no overt connection to the first. The two facts would be represented as independently holding.
With adverbial "the," however, the meaning is clear: he was not a penny richer
for having answered grammar questions all day.
In my interpretation of the Forster example, I did not consult my minimal knowledge of British history. I looked at the context and grasped the sentence meaning.
