[General] A superlative question

[LiuJing]

Human rights is one of the biggest concerns for our organization.

My question is if we can rephrase it to with its meaning unchanged as:

Human rights is a biggest concern for our organization.

Thank you.

 

[tedtmc]

Human rights is one of the biggest concerns for our organization.

Wrong. There should only be one biggest concern of all the concerns.

My question is if we can rephrase it to with its meaning unchanged as:

Human rights is [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE]the biggest concern [STRIKE]for [/STRIKE]of our organization.

Thank you.

not a teacher

 

[LiuJing]

Wrong. There should only be one biggest concern of all the concerns.


not a teacher

I am pretty much sure you can use plural form to follow a superlative adjective.

The USA is among the largest countries in the world.
One of my biggest dreams is to take a trip to the moon.

 

[Heterological]

Human rights is one of the biggest concerns for our organization.

Wrong. There should only be one biggest concern of all the concerns.

Not true. A person or group can have a short list of top concerns, and it is perfectly acceptable to say that something is "one of the biggest concerns," meaning it's in the top five or ten, but not necessarily number one.

My question is if we can rephrase it to with its meaning unchanged as:

Human rights is a biggest concern for our organization.

No, that sentence is not grammatically correct. You could say it is "a big concern," but you cannot put an indefinite article before a superlative.

 

[tedtmc]

I am pretty much sure you can use plural form to follow a superlative adjective.

The USA is among the largest countries in the world.
One of my biggest dreams is to take a trip to the moon.

OK, fair enough.

Not true. A person or group can have a short list of top concerns, and it is perfectly acceptable to say that something is "one of the biggest concerns," meaning it's in the top five or ten, but not necessarily number one

Logically speaking, if there are top five, don't you think there should be a No.1?

 

[Raymott]

Logically speaking, if there are top five, don't you think there should be a No.1?

Of course. But you might not be able to, or need to, or want to, identify the order of priority.

Some examples:
"My three children are the top three priorities in my life."

A politician might want to identify his top 5 priorities, but not order them. This way, he can retrospectively claim that the three he's fixed where indeed numbers 1, 2 and 3.