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Originally Posted by M56 That's exactly as I see it. What worries me is when native speakers reject such constructions because they demand that the adjective in question is absolute... ungradable. |
If an adjective is not gradable, and someone uses it as a gradable adjective, I believe I'll notice it. In other words, I can separate language which does not sound good because it is not usual, and probably incorrect, and language which might seem to be "not okay" in a rather small "technical" way, but in reality really is - OKAY.
So it seems that although "unnecessary" is an ungradable adjective, it can be modified with an extreme adverb. However, I would not do the same, for example, with "foremost".
I can hear myself saying "that was completely unnecessary". - no problem. If one says there's something wrong with it, this, in my opinion, means that one learned English after having acquired it as a first language. One should trust that one speaks correctly. I'm not relearning anything, thank you - if you know what I mean. My language is correct.