how much/how many?

[Antonella]

HI there fellow Listeros,

I was wondering if someone had ever sat down to think about the actual
grammatical category of the following words: 'how' and 'many' in the
expression 'how many' and 'how' and 'much' in the expression 'how much'.

If I were to analyse the following question: 'How much money do you have?'
What grammatical role would the 'how' and the word 'much' play?  Could they
be considered as one entity or 'unit' along the lines of 'how+come' which
can be substituted with 'why', as in 'How+come you're so tired?' and 'Why
are you so tired?' ?

Your answers and your comments would be welcome.
Antonella Conte
Université Laval