Qualifiable favorite?

[Lynne Murphy]

Definitely gradable for me.  I could have 'least favorite' or even 'most
favorite'.    I'd chalk it up to modern fickleness.  Notice how now people
also talk about their 'bestest friends'!

Lynne

--On Thursday, August 29, 2002 11:48 am -0400 sagehen
<sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:

> Is /favorite/ qualifiable?  My dialect excludes  the expression "least
> favorite."  A thing either is or isn't a favorite, but I see & hear "least
> favorite" frequently.  Is this regional, or is it a general shift?
> [Perhaps this has already been discussed;  I've only been reading the list
> for a couple of years.]
> A. Murie



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA Applied Linguistics

School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QH
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