Logos

CONSTRUCTIONcon.spa.superlativo-relativo

superlativo relativo

A pattern singling out the term of which a property holds to the greatest degree within a stated set, marked by a determiner before the quantifier.

The construction is the comparative with a definite determiner added and the second term replaced by a set, and the two changes go together: the determiner is what makes the phrase pick out a unique member, and the preposition is what makes the second element a set rather than a rival. Because the definite determiner is already present in the phrase where the superlative modifies a noun, the construction is often indistinguishable in surface form from an ordinary definite phrase containing a comparative, and only the presence of the set phrase or the context resolves it. A second superlative pattern, formed by a suffix on the adjective, states a high degree without comparing anything and is not this construction.

statusstatus
documentedasserted, and the sources agree
provenanceprovenance
authoredwritten for Logos, from first principles
derivation statusderivation_status
unstatednobody has said whether it follows from anything
saliencesalience
No salience. Where no frequency source applies the object carries none, rather than a default or a guess (03-schema.md §3.5).
aliasesaliases
  • metalanguagerelative superlative
sourcessources
  • SOURCENueva gramática de la lengua española (2009)src.nueva-gramaticano page in v1
  • SOURCEA New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish (Butt and Benjamin)src.butt-benjaminno page in v1

Why this is a construction at all

construction.admission

Goldberg's admission test: a template earns storage either by being unpredictable or by being frequent.

admissionadmission
frequentit is stored because it recurs often enough to be learned whole

The slots

construction.slots

At least two, by the schema: fewer is not a multi-element template. Every filler is a link, never a name in prose.

  1. 0el determinante definido, concordadolexically specified: only the fillers below may occupy it

    fillerslots[].filler
    functionslots[].fn
    FUNCTIONdeterminaciónfun.spa.determinacion

  2. 1el cuantificador más o menoslexically specified: only the fillers below may occupy it

    fillerslots[].filler
    functionslots[].fn
    No function is assigned to this slot.

  3. 2el adjetivolexically specified: only the fillers below may occupy it

    fillerslots[].filler
    functionslots[].fn
    FUNCTIONnúcleofun.spa.nucleo

  4. 3el conjunto de comparación, encabezado por la preposición depositional: this slot is a place in the string, not a lexical requirement

    fillerslots[].filler
    No filler is named. For a positional slot that is the correct reading; for a lexical one it is a gap.
    functionslots[].fn
    FUNCTIONcomplemento del núcleofun.spa.complemento-del-nucleo

Slot template

4 slots: 3 constrained, 1 positional, 3 naming a grammatical function.

  1. el determinante definido, concordado
    constrained
    • artículoclass

    names determinación

  2. el cuantificador más o menos
    constrained
    • adverbioclass
  3. el adjetivo
    constrained
    • adjetivoclass

    names núcleo

  4. el conjunto de comparación, encabezado por la preposición de
    positional

    no lexical filler — this slot marks a position only

    names complemento del núcleo

Confusable with

construction.confusable

Objects a reader is likely to mix up with this one, and the difference that separates them. The edge is symmetric and stored once, so this renders on both objects' pages from the one statement.

Everything joined to this object

One group per typed edge, in both directions. A1b guarantees no object node is an orphan, so this is the whole navigation: an object with no edges would have failed the build rather than reached this page.

What this object is a kind of

Walking this object's own `is-a` edges: what it is a kind of. Several branches from one object are several classification axes, not competing supertypes.

objects
1
places drawn
1
multi-parent
None in this view. This subgraph happens to be a tree, which the explorer draws as one without assuming it is one.

Siblings are listed by name, then by id to break ties. That is a display choice made here and not an order the graph asserts.

Fan-out per dimension

A4

One row per dimension, largest first. That is a display order, not a verdict: 03-schema.md declares no threshold above which fan-out is too much, so this reports the count and grades nothing.

  • case13 values
  • mood8 values
  • voice8 values
  • aspect7 values
  • aktionsart6 values
  • number6 values
  • person6 values
  • tense6 values
  • comparison4 values
  • evidentiality4 values
  • gender4 values
  • politeness4 values
  • valency4 values
  • animacy3 values
  • definiteness3 values
  • deixis3 values
  • finiteness2 values
  • information structure2 values
  • interrogativity2 values
  • polarity2 values
  • switch-reference2 values

What kinds of this object there are

Walking the `is-a` edges that point at this object: what kinds of it there are. An object reachable two ways is drawn in both places and is still one object.

objects
1
places drawn
1
multi-parent
None in this view. This subgraph happens to be a tree, which the explorer draws as one without assuming it is one.

Siblings are listed by name, then by id to break ties. That is a display choice made here and not an order the graph asserts.

has-a

edges.has-a

the parent carries this

this object carries

selects

edges.selects

the parent requires this elsewhere

this object requires, elsewhere

  • CLASSpreposicióncls.spa.preposiciondocumented
    • conditionThe set is introduced by the preposition de and not by the connector the comparatives use, which is what marks the comparison as being against a set rather than against a second term.

via

edges.via

this realizer, this way

this object realizes

derives

edges.derives

the why-chain

derived by