Superlatives - settle an argument please

[ThatDamnDog]

IMO a superlative is a word which denotes the most of something, eg biggest, longest, hardest etc

DP agrees but says that words like fantastic, brilliant, outstanding are superlatives.

Who is right?

You are right. The superlative form of an adjective denotes that which is to a greater degree than that with which it is being compared.

Your DH is confused. "Superlative" as a word can be used in adjectival form to mean fantastic or brilliant or outstanding, in as much as it can be used to describe something as the greatest ("the food was superlative", etc.). I think it is for this reason that he's made this mistake. "Fantastic", "brilliant", "outstanding", written/said like that are just adjectives. "Most fantastic", "most brilliant", "most outstanding", would be superlatives.

Yes, he said about how you could have a "superlative performance" for example, so he does know that, but also thinks positive adjectives as I mentioned before are superlatives which wasn't my understanding.

Do you know any good grammar websites which I could link him to?

No, sorry, not off the top of my head.

He just has to reflect a moment and realise that he is using the word "superlative" itself as an adjective, rather than using it as a grammatical term.

If you use superlative adjectivally, then it is similar in sense to words like brilliant, etc.

However, if you talk about "a superlative", then it can only be in the grammatical sense. You can't talk about "a brilliant" or "a fantastic" in the grammatical sense. They're adjectives.

I suspect that there is a term to describe adjectives which have intrinsically positive meanings (such as "fantastic", rather than "blue", for instance), and that he is sensing that there is a class of adjectives which is different from other adjectives. However, I'm too lazy to go and look that up. And anyway, "brilliant", etc., are still just adjectives...

Was this from the Extraordinary School for Boys by any chance?

Thanks very much for your help :)

He realises that superlative itself can be an adjective. But he's staunchly saying that in this day and age brilliant, fantastic etc are regarded casually as superlatives ...

I'm thinking he's waffling now ...

Thanks for clearing that up though, things like this bug me to the extent that I may have lain awake tonight, chewing my knuckles and twitching.

Knitting - yes! I was annoyed!

Lol! I watched it and cringed!

[embraces kindred spirit]

Ask him what he thinks "most fantastic"/"most brilliant", etc. are then, if "fantastic"/"brilliant" are already superlatives... Superlative superlatives?

There is actually something to be said about superlatives here that hasn't been mentioned .

There are some adjectives that denote the existence or non-existence of something and cannot be formed into comparatives or superlatives.

For example- the adjective 'full'

You couldn't say "That is the fullest/ most full moon I've ever seen."