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 that English and German exhibit different patterns of definiteness marking with superlatives. This talk will show that Swedish exhibits yet a third pattern. 2 / 33
English German Swedish 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)) 3 / 33
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: Gloria has visited the most continents. False: Gloria has visited most continents. 4 / 33
English German Swedish 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) 5 / 33
English German Swedish Example scenario Russia True: Russia produces the most oil. False: Russia produces most oil. 6 / 33
English German Swedish English most vs. the most The most is not acceptable when there’s no comparison class. With count noun ( continents ): There are people living on { most *the most } continents. (5) With mass noun ( oil ): There is contamination in { most *the most } oil. (6) 7 / 33
English German Swedish 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) 8 / 33
English German Swedish 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. 9 / 33
English German Swedish Summary: English ▸ [ + DEF ] ⇒ relative reading ▸ [ − DEF ] ⇒ proportional reading preferred ▸ Fewest has no proportional reading ⇒ [ − DEF ] dispreferred 10 / 33
English German Swedish No bare meisten in German Hans hat { die meisten } Bücher gelesen. (13) *meisten a. ‘John read more books than anybody else.’ b. ‘John read more than half of the books.’ (Hackl 2009, ex. (9)) 11 / 33
English German Swedish What about bare wenigsten ? Hans hat { die wenigsten } Bücher gelesen. (14) *wenigsten a. ‘John read fewer books than anybody else.’ b. *‘John read less than half of the books.’ (Hackl 2009, ex. (10)) 12 / 33
English German Swedish Summary: German ▸ [ + DEF ] ⇒ relative reading OR proportional reading preferred ▸ [ − DEF ] dispreferred ▸ Die wenigsten has no proportional reading 13 / 33
English German Swedish The inventory of English vs. Swedish UPPER - BOUNDING LOWER - BOUNDING as much bread as little bread MASS 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] as many people as few people COUNT 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) 14 / 33
English German Swedish The inventory of English vs. Swedish UPPER - BOUNDING LOWER - BOUNDING lika mycket vin lika lite vin MASS 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] lika många öl lika få öl COUNT 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] 15 / 33
English German Swedish The inventory of Swedish vs. English vs. German S WEDISH E NGLISH G ERMAN MANY + ER fler more mehr MUCH + ER mer more mehr FEW + ER färre fewer weniger LITTLE + ER mindre less weniger 16 / 33
English German Swedish The inventory of Swedish vs. English vs. German S WEDISH E NGLISH G ERMAN MANY + EST flest most meisten MUCH + EST mest most meisten % färst FEW + EST fewest wenigste LITTLE + EST minst least wenigste 17 / 33
English German Swedish 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) 18 / 33
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. 19 / 33
English German Swedish 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. 20 / 33
English German Swedish 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. 21 / 33
English German Swedish 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) 22 / 33
English German Swedish Example scenario Russia True: Ryssland producerar mest olja. False: Ryssland producerar den mesta oljan. 23 / 33
English German Swedish 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: Det finns flygplatser vid { *flest städer. de flesta större städer(na). } (25) With mass noun: Det finns kolhydrater i { *mest mat. den mesta maten. } (26) 24 / 33
English German Swedish 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) 25 / 33
English German Swedish Swedish färst and minst without a comparison class. With count noun: Det bor folk på { *färst/minst kontinenter. *de färsta/minsta kontinenterna. } (29) (30) *Det bor folk på det minsta antalet kontinenter With mass noun: Det är kontaminanter i { *minst olja. *den minsta oljan. } (31) (neither proportional reading nor relative reading) 26 / 33
English German Swedish Summary: Swedish ▸ [ + DEF ] ⇒ proportional reading preferred ▸ [ − DEF ] ⇒ relative reading preferred ▸ Färst / minst has no proportional reading ⇒ [ − DEF ] dispreferred 27 / 33
English German Swedish Summary of the data E NGLISH G ERMAN S WEDISH R ELATIVE the most die meisten flest the fewest die wenigsten färst/minst P ROPORTIONAL most die meisten de flesta *fewest *die wenigsten *de färsta/minsta 28 / 33
English German Swedish Quantity vs. degree superlatives D EGREE SUPERLATIVES : ▸ den godaste ölen / godast öl ▸ det godaste vinet / godast vin Q UANTITY SUPERLATIVES : ▸ de flesta ölen / flest öl ▸ det mesta vinet / mest vin 29 / 33
English German Swedish Direkt vs. indirekt urval (SAG II §45-46) D IREKT 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.” I NDIREKT 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. 30 / 33
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