Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 April 29

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 29

Using a superlative adjective when comparing only two items

If you have three items to compare (whatever they are), you can refer to them as -- for example -- large, larger, largest. Or wide, wider, widest. Or lazy, lazier, laziest. And so forth. Now, if you only have two items, you would say: large and larger ... or wide and wider ... or lazy and lazier ... and so forth. So, my question: if you only have two items, and not three, can you still use the "superlative" form? The one that ends in the -est? Here is an example. A note to students: You are allowed to take this exam two times. As your final grade, the professor will record the higher score of the two attempts. In that context, is it acceptable/appropriate to say: A note to students: You are allowed to take this exam two times. As your final grade, the professor will record the highest score of the two attempts. ... or not? In that example, can you use the superlative form "highest" when you are only comparing two items, not three? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:41, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

"Higher" is better, but "highest" is also clear. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:58, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

This site says, "When there are just two members in a group, traditionally, we use the comparative. However, in informal situations people often use the superlative." That seems about right; in formal writing the comparative is usual when two things are compared, but in everyday speech one often hears the superlative. Deor (talk) 05:24, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Indeed. The issue is that if you make an ordered list, the comparative adjective refers to the second of two arbitrary items picked from that list, while the superlative refers to the the last item on the list. In the unique case of a list of exactly two items, the comparative and the superlative coincidentally refer to the same item, which is why it feels natural to use either term in a set of two; formal language is a somewhat constrained and rigid and artificial set of rules which is why the formal usage is more restrictive (formal language seeks to minimize ambiguity by avoiding equivalent choices and only defining one choice as correct) but natural language is always more ambiguous and fluid. --Jayron32 13:37, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

@Jayron32: Thanks. I have been doing "mental gymnastics" with your comment. You said: "if you make an ordered list, the comparative adjective refers to the second of two arbitrary items picked from that list". Thinking out loud, as I read your comment, my thoughts were: "No, I don't think that's correct. The comparative adjective would refer to any and every item on the list, except for the first item (and perhaps the last item -- i.e., the gist of my original question)." Am I right? Are we both saying the same thing? Or different things? Example: You have an ordered list of ten items. The comparative adjective would refer to items 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Not item 1. And, possibly (or, possibly not), item 10 ... given the "ambiguity" that spurred my original question. Maybe you and I are essentially saying the same thing? Just wanted to clarify. Thoughts? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:27, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Alright. Picture I line up a bunch of rocks, such that they increase in size from left to right, and for the sake of simplicity, assign the rocks an ordinality in order from left to right, so we call the leftmost one "first" and then so on. Pick any two arbitrary rocks from the set. The larger one will be the one that's further along the list, i.e. more right. It's the "second" rock you will have removed, assuming that on your list closer to first is less size. The largest rock is the one on the extreme right. If there are only two rocks in your line, the first process (remove two, and assign an adjective to the right one) and the second process (assign an adjective to the rightmost) produces two different adjectives for the same rock. That's what I meant when I said "if you make an ordered list", the key thing in the visualization is that your list is ordered, i.e. it has a structure where the property in question is increasing. --Jayron32 16:37, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

@Jayron32: Yes. Thanks. I think we're basically saying the same thing. Or, rather, working along the same principle. I get your example above, about the rocks placed in order of increasing size. I see the point you are making, as to whether we utilize "process A" or "process B" to come up with the correct adjective. My (somewhat related) point is this. In your placement of ten rocks ... the word "large" would apply to all ten rocks. The word "larger" would apply to only nine rocks (those numbered 2 through 10 ... i.e., eliminating rock number 1 ... and with rock number 10 being the ambiguous scenario). And the word "largest" would apply only to one rock, namely, rock number 10. Like I said, mental gymnastics. I think that is the point I was trying to make. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:57, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 14:53, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Rooibus en español

How do you say rooibus in español? My grandmother used to say té rojo or té rojo sudafricano but i want to propose roiba to the rae how can i do that and is there a term?99.145.194.98 (talk) 19:44, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure I completely follow the question, but for what it's worth, our Spanish-language article is at Aspalathus linearis, and calls it rooibos. --Trovatore (talk) 20:19, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

What, pray tell, is "rooibus"? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:46, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

See rooibos. The OP misspelled it slightly. --Trovatore (talk) 21:47, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm not finding it in the Real Academia site. For what it's worth, Google Translate has it as "rooibos" in Spanish. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:56, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

I think if GT can't find a corresponding word, it just leaves the word untranslated, so all that really proves is that it doesn't know a different Spanish word. However, as I mention above, the es.wiki article explicitly calls it rooibos. --Trovatore (talk) 22:05, 29 April 2020 (UTC)