LL-L: "Logic" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 23.SEP.1999 (04)

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Logic

Ron

Thanks for your comments on my last communication. Of course, we haven't
been talking about someone introducing ambiguous novelties but about
well-established forms in lesser-valued forms of language.

There is an interesting paradoxical usage in Dutch. One finds forms like
"relatief grotere" which, since "grotere" is an ordinary comparative here,
is "illogical", "grotere" already containing the idea of relation. I assume
that the construction arises because "grotere" can be used as an absolute
comparative, which generally does not exist in English (we use "largish",
etc, or various adverbial paraphrases). Inserting "relatief" makes it clear
that this absolute meaning is not intended, so it appears that the desire
for clarity overrides logic. Is this a plausible explanation, and/or do we
write the usage off as "bad Dutch"?

German and Swedish also use the absolute comparative but I have never
noticed the "relative" usage there. Does it occur?

The only use of the absolute comparative I can think of in English is
"major". It is, of course, by any rational standard, bad English.:-)

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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