Sobre la coherència lingüística del superlatiu aplicat a circumstancials (vine al més tot que pugues).

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, Catalan had two irregular uses of the superlative, both rarely used: quantification of the noun (Portaré els més diners que podré) and the adverbial complements of manner and time (Vine al més tost que pugues). In his middle years, Pompeu Fabra recommended the second construction so as to avoid the use of the Castilian lo (Vine lo més prompte que pugues). However, the theoretical lacunae in the field of comparison meant that Fabra did this in a very vague way, which has led to part of current written Catalan using constructions that have never been Catalan and sound not at all good (like Va ser el més a la vora que he estat mai). This article, in addition to explaining this theory on superlatives, seeks to show that on this question the Catalan linguistic ruling is not very coherent (explicit rejection of the Castilian lo and hidden use of it). This contradiction can be resolved by recourse to living popular constructions (such as No he estat mai tan a la vora del precipici, in the above example).