Most and the most in German, English and Swedish Christian Josefson - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Most and the most in German, English and Swedish Christian Josefson - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Dec 28, 2022 163 likes •512 views

English German Swedish Most and the most in German, English and Swedish Christian Josefson & Elizabeth Coppock University of Gothenburg Grammatikfestivalen 2014 1 / 33 English German Swedish Mini-roadmap Previous studies have shown

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English German Swedish

Most and the most in German, English and Swedish

Christian Josefson & Elizabeth Coppock

University of Gothenburg

Grammatikfestivalen 2014

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Mini-roadmap

Previous studies have shown that English and German exhibit different patterns of definiteness marking with superlatives. This talk will show that Swedish exhibits yet a third pattern.

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English most vs. the most

With definiteness marking: (1) Gloria has visited the most continents. → Gloria has visited more continents than anyone else. (a relative reading) No definiteness marking: (2) Gloria has visited most continents. → Gloria has visited more than half of the continents. (a proportional reading*) *relative reading also OK but dispreferred in American English, fully acceptable in British English (Hackl 2009, cf. ex. (23))

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Example scenario

Assume: Gloria has visited North America, South America and Europe. Everyone else has visited only North America and Europe. True: Gloria has visited the most continents. False: Gloria has visited most continents.

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Mass nouns

With definiteness marking: (3) Russia produces the most oil. → Russia produces more oil than anybody else. (a relative reading) Without definiteness marking: (4) Russia produces most oil. →Russia produces more than half of the oil. (a proportional reading)

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Example scenario

Russia

True: Russia produces the most oil. False: Russia produces most oil.

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English most vs. the most

The most is not acceptable when there’s no comparison class. With count noun (continents): (5) There are people living on { most *the most } continents. With mass noun (oil): (6) There is contamination in { most *the most } oil.

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Lower-bounding superlatives

With count noun: (7) Gloria has visited the fewest continents. → Gloria visited fewer continents than anyone else. (a relative reading) (8) ?Gloria visited fewest continents. (relative reading if any) With mass noun: (9) Russia produces the least oil. → Russia produces less oil than anybody else. (a relative reading) (10) ?Russia produces least oil. (relative reading if any)

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Lower-bounding superlatives, no comparison class

With least and fewest, neither [+DEF] nor [−DEF] is acceptable when there’s no comparison class. (11) *There are people living on { fewest the fewest } continents. (12) *There is contamination in { least the least } oil. This is because neither least nor fewest has a proportional interpretation.

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Summary: English

▸ [+DEF] ⇒ relative reading ▸ [−DEF] ⇒ proportional reading preferred ▸ Fewest has no proportional reading ⇒ [−DEF] dispreferred

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No bare meisten in German

(13) Hans hat { die meisten *meisten } Bücher gelesen.

  • a. ‘John read more books than anybody else.’
  • b. ‘John read more than half of the books.’

(Hackl 2009, ex. (9))

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What about bare wenigsten?

(14) Hans hat { die wenigsten *wenigsten } Bücher gelesen.

  • a. ‘John read fewer books than anybody else.’
  • b. *‘John read less than half of the books.’

(Hackl 2009, ex. (10))

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Summary: German

▸ [+DEF] ⇒ relative reading OR proportional reading

preferred

▸ [−DEF] dispreferred ▸ Die wenigsten has no proportional reading

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The inventory of English vs. Swedish

UPPER-BOUNDING LOWER-BOUNDING MASS

as much bread as little bread too much bread too little bread that much bread that little bread so much bread so little bread

  • er much bread [> more]
  • er little bread [> less]

COUNT

as many people as few people too many people too few people that many people that few people so many people so few people

  • er many people [> more]
  • er few people [> fewer]

(Bresnan 1973)

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The inventory of English vs. Swedish

UPPER-BOUNDING LOWER-BOUNDING MASS

lika mycket vin lika lite vin för mycket vin för lite vin så (där) mycket vin så (där) lite vin så (jävla) mycket vin så (jävla) lite vin

  • er mycket vin [> mer]
  • er lite vin [> mindre]

COUNT

lika många öl lika få öl för många öl för få öl så (där) många öl så (där) få öl så (jävla) många öl så (jävla) få öl

  • er många öl [> fler]
  • er få öl [> färre]

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The inventory of Swedish vs. English vs. German

SWEDISH ENGLISH GERMAN

MANY + ER

fler more mehr

MUCH + ER

mer more mehr

FEW + ER

färre fewer weniger

LITTLE + ER

mindre less weniger

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The inventory of Swedish vs. English vs. German

SWEDISH ENGLISH GERMAN

MANY + EST

flest most meisten

MUCH + EST

mest most meisten

FEW + EST

%färst

fewest wenigste

LITTLE + EST

minst least wenigste

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Swedish flest: opposite of English

With definiteness marking: (15) Gloria har besökt de flesta kontinenterna. → Gloria has visited more than half of the continents. (a proportional reading) No definiteness marking: (16) Gloria har besökt flest kontinenter. → Gloria has visited more continents than anyone else. (a relative reading)

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English German Swedish

Example scenario

Assume: Gloria has visited North America, South America and Europe. Everyone else has visited only North America and Europe. True: Glora har besökt flest kontinenter. False: Gloria har besökt de flesta kontinenterna.

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Some corpus examples with flest

(17) De tv-exponerade, de med de mest hängivna barnfansen, de med flest stalkers kommer vinna. (18) Rosenius lär vara den svenska (kristna) författare som har sina böcker översatta till flest språk. (19) Till slut var det faktiskt myrorna som vann kampen om flest döingar.

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Some corpus examples with de flesta

(20) Han har tittat på de flesta matcherna. (21) Förstås handlade de flesta konserterna om jazz. (22) I själva verket kan de flesta varor och tjänster produceras regionalt eller åtminstone inom landet.

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Swedish: Mass nouns

With definiteness marking: (23) Ryssland producerar den mesta olja. → Russia produces more than half of the oil. (a proportional reading) No definiteness marking: (24) Ryssland producerar mest olja. → Russia produces more oil than anybody else. (a relative reading)

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Example scenario

Russia

True: Ryssland producerar mest olja. False: Ryssland producerar den mesta oljan.

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Flest and mest without a comparison class

As with English, relative readings require a comparison class in Swedish, but because of the inverted definiteness pattern, the variant with definiteness marking is the one that is acceptable. With count noun: (25) Det finns flygplatser vid {*flest städer. de flesta större städer(na). } With mass noun: (26) Det finns kolhydrater i {*mest mat. den mesta maten. }

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Swedish minst vs. de minsta

With definiteness marking: (27) ? Gloria gjorde de färsta/minsta målen. (neither proportional reading nor relative reading) No definiteness marking: (28) Gloria gjorde färst/minst mål. → Gloria scored fewer goals than anyone else. (a relative reading)

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Swedish färst and minst without a comparison class.

With count noun: (29) Det bor folk på {*färst/minst kontinenter. *de färsta/minsta kontinenterna. } (30) *Det bor folk på det minsta antalet kontinenter With mass noun: (31) Det är kontaminanter i {*minst olja. *den minsta oljan. } (neither proportional reading nor relative reading)

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English German Swedish

Summary: Swedish

▸ [+DEF] ⇒ proportional reading preferred ▸ [−DEF] ⇒ relative reading preferred ▸ Färst/minst has no proportional reading ⇒ [−DEF]

dispreferred

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Summary of the data

ENGLISH GERMAN SWEDISH RELATIVE the most die meisten flest the fewest die wenigsten färst/minst PROPORTIONAL most die meisten de flesta *fewest *die wenigsten *de färsta/minsta

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Quantity vs. degree superlatives

DEGREE SUPERLATIVES:

▸ den godaste ölen / godast öl ▸ det godaste vinet / godast vin

QUANTITY SUPERLATIVES:

▸ de flesta ölen / flest öl ▸ det mesta vinet / mest vin

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Direkt vs. indirekt urval (SAG II §45-46)

DIREKT URVAL: e.g. Den största tallen blev nerskuren. “Med superlativen utpekas den eller det i gruppen som har den angivna egenskapen i högre grad än de övriga.” INDIREKT URVAL: e.g. Gloria sålde godast glass. We don’t compare the ice cream with other ice cream directly; we compare it indirectly, through a comparison between Gloria and other people.

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Relative and absolute readings

In English, both readings are [+DEF]. (32) Gloria climbed the highest mountain.

▸ absolute reading: Gloria climbed Mt. Everest. ▸ relative reading: Gloria climbed a mountain that was

higher than all mountains climbed by anybody else. Swedish distinguishes absolute/relative: (33) Gloria klättrade upp för det högsta berget.

▸ absolute reading (direkt urval)

(34) Gloria klättrade upp för högst berg.

▸ relative reading (indirekt urval)

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AMOUNT SUPERLATIVES [+DEF] [-DEF] English relative proportional/?relative German proportional/relative * Swedish proportional relative DEGREE SUPERLATIVES [+DEF] [-DEF] English relative/absolute * German relative/absolute * Swedish absolute relative

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But why?

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