3 ms·
The first two (worstest/most least, so smallest) are easily classified as wrong because "-est", "most", and "so" only apply to adjectives of positive degree rat
by belovedeagle 11y ago
The first two (worstest/most least, so smallest) are easily classified as wrong because "-est", "most", and "so" only apply to adjectives of positive degree rather than comparative or superlative. So to deny that grammar is "real" using these examples is to attack a strawman.
- Cushman 11y agoOh, I get what you're saying-- so "the" must be a superlative adjective, right? Makes sense really, as it's the "most specific" article.
- belovedeagle 11y ago... no, quite the opposite. Since grammar has no reason to prefer large classification sets (generalization) to small (uniqueness), unlike descriptive linguistics, I'm perfectly happy to say that grammatically "the" is an article and leave it at that.