Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 12:41:46 -0700

From: "A. Maberry" maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU

Subject: Re: As best as I can remember



it grates on me too. "to the best of your recollection ..." sounds fine.

language inflation? maybe it's just a conflation of the two phrases.

allen

maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu



On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Duane Campbell wrote:



Watching the Senate Finance Committee hearings just now (I don't have much

of a life), an attorney asked, "As best as you can remember . . ."



It seems to me that in the last few years this phrase has almost completely

replaced "as well as", even among well educated speakers. It grates on my

ears. Am I wrong to think that this is grammatically incorrect, that you

cannot compare a superlative? Is it language inflation? Or am I just being

picky?





Duane Campbell dcamp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]epix.net

http://www.epix.net/~dcamp/