Adjectival syllable count, often used to predict English comparatives more versus -er, is of little help in predicting the comparatives of adjectives ending in <y>, pronounced /i/, here called the y-adjectives. Examples of y-adjectives include silly and worthy. This article considers whether the phonemic segment count (segment count) and penultimate syllable weight (penultimate weight) of y-adjectives may serve as alternatives to syllable count in predicting more versus -er. The segment count and penultimate weight of relevant y-adjective tokens from a set of diachronic corpora are studied, alongside the tokens’ morphological complexity and period of occurrence in two separate, parallel sets of mixed-effects models. Syllabification principles for penultimate weight coding differentiate the two sets of modelling. Findings converge on segment count as a predictor of the comparative form, while the role of morphological complexity remains less clear, emerging significantly from one set of modelling but not the other. A rethinking of adjectival length based on segment count is advanced for our understanding of y-adjective comparatives. Discussed also are downstream implications of variant syllabification theories on accounts of y-adjective comparatives, together with insights shed on morphophonological intersections and the potential place of English y-adjective comparatives within the ambit of English alternations.

形容词音节计数，通常用于预测英语比较级more与 - er，对于预测以 <y> 结尾的形容词的比较级几乎没有帮助，发音为 /i/，这里称为 y形容词。y形容词的例子包括silly和worthy。本文考虑了y形容词的音素段计数（segment count）和倒数第二个音节权重（penultimate weight）是否可以替代音节计数来预测more与 - er。相关y的段数和倒数第二个权重- 研究了一组历时语料库中的形容词记号，以及记号在两个独立的、平行的混合效应模型集中的形态复杂性和出现周期。倒数第二个权重编码的音节化原则区分了两组建模。研究结果集中在片段计数上，作为比较形式的预测因子，而形态复杂性的作用仍然不太清楚，从一组建模中显着出现，而不是另一组建模。对基于句段计数的形容词长度的重新思考有助于我们理解y形容词比较级。还讨论了变体音节化理论对y的解释的下游影响-形容词比较级，以及对词形交集的见解以及英语y -形容词比较级在英语交替范围内的潜在位置。