I apologise for my lack or 'wordiness' but I have a quick question which neither my english teacher or tafe teachers can answer. THere is a word that describes words such as full (which can't be made to fuller) or empty (whcih can't be emptier). THey only exist the way they are. Does anyone know what these words are called??

Welcome aBoard, shelby! Can't help with the word you're looking for, sorry, but. Just as a point of clarification, do you mean that you're looking for the word that describes words for concepts that can't be enlarged upon? That is, if a container is empty, then it's empty--though come to think of it, I reckon only a vaccum truly fits that! But back to the everyday world...I think I know what you mean: you can compare the contents of one container to another; but one single container cannot be empty, then emptier.
Full, though, I'm not so sure of. There's nearly full, full to the mark, full, full to the brim, and overfull, to name a few concepts I can think of. If a container looks to be full, but still can hold one more drop or one more granule, was it indeed full? And what about a Thermos bottle, or any container that has a section of the lid/cap that fits down into the container: if you fill that container to its brim, the contents are going to spill when you put the lid on. So when is that one full?

Anyway--what's a tafe teacher, please?

Thanks for the welcome Jackie. I am looking for the word that describes the concepts that can't be expanded on. (I apologize for the plagiarism but you put it so eloquently). In response to your questions a TAFE teacher teaches at an institute that is an alternative to University. They tend to teach trades rather than degrees. I thought of asking my Uni teacher but I'm studying Psychology and I don't think he'd be very responsive.
Nice talking with you.

= Technical And Further Eduction (Australia).

Used to be known as "Tech Colleges". Historically they were the bastion of education for those learning a trade. Now much, much more and, in some cases, the Instution can also award degrees for selected courses of study.

approx = CAE, College (of) Advanced Education

...and Shellb....G'day mate!!

stales

Sated might could work for 'cain't get no fuller,' depending on circumstances. Maybe evacuated for '…no emptier.'

Sated might could work for 'cain't get no fuller,' depending on circumstances. Maybe evacuated for '…no emptier.' Ok, but--I think shellb is looking for a term for the words which, if I may perhaps put it a different way, either are or aren't. (A nice, comfortable concept, I might add! Either black or white--no darned ol' shades of gray.) So, perhaps without arguing about my specific and no doubt arguable examples, I will try, besides
empty:
pregnant,
and broken. Tsuwm?

Shellb, please post if my assumption/examples are not what you meant.

Adding to Jackie...
Dead ?

so the question becomes: is there a word for linguistic absolutes?

CWC, you read my mind! I nearly came back and edited that one in!

And tsuwm, I think you've hit it on the nose. But...you don't know??? [in that case we're sunk e]

I just got to this thread, and wanted to suggest absolutes as well.

Indeclinables? Or inflectious?

how's about something in Latin, with a Greek prefix?

Well this is a very unique discussion! *ducks and runs*

Ah, yes, I knew this was sounding familiar.

In an April discussion, Alex said:
... "largely silenced" is a bit like "mostly a virgin" or "a little bit pregnant."

I remembered the pregnant part. How could I forget virginity?

So did we find a way to describe these words back then?

I like linguistic absolutes but that concept could apply to more than this situation wouldn't say.


Welcome Shellb !! It's nice to see new folks aBoard.

Jackie, I believe, has hit on the answer. If Shelby is talking about what I think he is, it's words denoting a quality which, by its nature, does not admit of the comparative or superlative degree. One does not speak, except facetiously, of someone being very pregnant or very dead -- you're either pregnant or dead or you're not. Same goes for "the most pregnant" or "the deadest". Well, you might use 'dead' in a figurative sense, like "Smallburg is the deadest town I've ever spent time in" or something like that, but not in the literal sense.

Two of my favorite bugboos, which fall into this category, are 'unique' and 'perfect'. I don't care what those idiots say on QVC etc., something can't be very unique [shudder]. Something is either unique or it isn't; this is implied in the meaning of the word. Same goes for 'perfect' notwithstanding the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

Bobyoungbalt has hit the nail on the head. Words like full, empty, pregnant etc full under a classification such as noun, verb etc and that's what i am trying in earnest to find out. It was told to me once and the fact that i can;t remember is making me tear out my hair.

something can't be very unique [shudder]

Everybody's unique and, while I may be more unique than many I don't think there's any question that musick is the most unique of all or us.

And, since nobody's perfect we can have degrees of proximity to perfectness and there's no reason to have the word if we can't use it to express degrees of closeness to Platonic perfection.

Pblblblblbrrrrt

Unfortunately that's not how language works. Folks the world over tend to pile up modifiers adding more and more to a word, etc. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just a Canutian task to rail against it. I posted the earliest example of very unique that I could find on my blog. It occurs in Plautus.

http://www.bisso.com/ujg_archives/000315.html

Everyone is unique but what a lot we have in common! And let me assure you, gentlemen, that at eight months a woman feels far more pregnant than at two months--a cup may be half full, half empty, too full to handlewithout spilling--and in my perhaps unusual but surely not unique opinion, some canned or over-processed meats seem very dead.

The word is either non-gradable or non-scalar. I've been hunting around for a linguistic term that's a plain word, not a negative, but can't find one by searching for "gradable" and "scalar".

The difference between these two isn't entirely clear to me. A gradable property is one that something can have to a greater or a lesser extent. A scalar property designates a distinctive point on some scale. Most adjectives are both. Hm.

Cool! Thanks, Jenet. I am SO glad you're still around! Oh--I just thought of another negative one that might fit: non-quantifiable. ?

In reply to:

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The difference between these two isn't entirely clear to me. A gradable property is one that something can have to a greater or a lesser extent. A scalar property designates a distinctive point on some scale. Most adjectives are both. Hm.

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From your description, one sounds like it pertains to continuously variable qualities and the other to discrete qualities.

...there's any question that musick is the most unique of all or us.

I've always depended upon the kindness of strangers... [flutter-e]

...so what the **** was that all about?