Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
all the, all the farther
All the is mainly an intensifier, used frequently with a comparative: All the better to see you with, my dear. Such uses are Standard, but All the plus a comparative is often challenged as being a Nonstandard dialectal substitute for as plus adjective or adverb plus as: Many prefer That’s as far as I can go to That’s all the farther I can go. At any rate, Edited English does not admit all the farther, all the easier, and others on that model, although they are quite common in Inland Northern and North Midland Impromptu and Casual speech.
