"From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html" wrote:
> no.
> ichiban is retrospective absolute (ranking).
> most is prospective relative, i.e. superlative.
I don't understand what you mean - "most" *is* ranking. "She is the
most beautiful" means "she is number one in beauty".
> japanese :
> here is A and there is B.
> now we'll tell what tall is.
> A is tall (relative).
> and now we rank A first (absolute).
>
> english :
> here is tall A and there is tall B.
> now we'll tell what is taller.
> A is taller (absolute).
> and now let's see around us : A is tallest (relative).
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand what you're point
is. There seems to me to be no actual difference between the English
and the Japanese superlatives.
--
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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