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- From: A.M.Wall@newcastle.ac.uk (A.M.Wall)
- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Subject: Re: quite unique
- Message-ID: <BxtHoC.Goy@newcastle.ac.uk>
- Date: 16 Nov 92 16:26:35 GMT
- References: <28154@castle.ed.ac.uk>
- Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU
- Lines: 15
- Nntp-Posting-Host: eata
-
- In article <28154@castle.ed.ac.uk> benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge) writes:
- >Hi everyone!
- > I've been having an argument with a friend about the
- >words "quite unique".
- > Is this a valid combination? He says that unique is
- >ultimate - you can't have degrees of it. I say there is a
- >meaning of unique ('ganz' in German rather than 'ziemlich')
- >that would be permissible, meaning 'completely'. But he
- >says that even this indicates degree, so therefore is
- >incorrect. Who's right??????
-
- The answer is that you're both quite (i.e. perfectly) correct. It just depends
- on the emphasis you put on the words.
- Do you say "QUITE unique" (a measure of degree)
- or "quite UNIQUE" (completely) ?
-