昨日の記事「構文の contamination」 ([2011-05-04-1]) で最後に取り上げた "inclusive superlative" について,BNCweb でどのくらいヒットするか試してみた."(most _AJ0 | _AJS) (_{N})* of (any)? other" で検索すると,以下の7例を取り出すことができた(赤字は引用者).
- Chang's speed was the best of any other player.
- Perhaps the most notable of other attempts to describe parents in this fashion was undertaken by Earl S. Schaefer.
- This percentage is the largest of any other constituency in England.
- But centuries of migration, conquest, occupation, intermarriage, trade and cultural exchange - not to mention the tendency of artists to copy or reinterpret the most successful facets of other artists' work - have eroded much of this exclusivity.
- Commander Keen has the largest fan club of any other shareware game available.
- 'In proportion to the kiwi's size the egg is the largest of any other bird.
- I say in particular our union because everyone here knows we probably have the largest and best training programme of any other union in Britain today.
初期近代英語にも見られたということなので,The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English (PPCEME) でざっと調べてみると,John Fryer (b. c1650, d. 1733) なる人物の東洋旅行記に次の1例があった.
They yet retain a Warlike Disposition, being still accounted the best Gunners here of any other places in Persia;
この妙な構文の起源と歴史を探るには,混交のもととなっている2つの構文 comparative + than any other と superlative + of all の頻度や文脈をまず洗い出す必要があるだろう.
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