Extravagant language
Sir, — H.S. Baverstock (March 30) deserves an accolade for brilliantly summing up the approach of many to this present use of superlatives in this society of ours. Persistently one hears superlative after superlative being used to describe rather mundane objects or. events, and the tragedy is that no-one appears to be immune from such corruption. Perhaps the fault lies with the copy-writers of today who must in every description seek to make that object or event appear as if it is so much better than any other object or event; or perhaps the fault lies with those of us in society, who, as children, read those comic books which contained phrases expounding the virtues of the use of superlative upon superlative, and with which we have carried these on with us into the adult world where superlatives are used with as much dexterity and variety as super-laxatives are used in causing one form or another of diarrhoea, depending upon which end one views the situation. — Yours, etc., PETER W. KENNEDY. March 31, 1983.
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Press, 5 April 1983, Page 12
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175Extravagant language Press, 5 April 1983, Page 12
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