"much" vs. "a lot of"

[Jonathan Lighter]

1. "I don't drink a lot of coffee, but when I do, I drink *much (of it)."

Would anybody say that?

2. "I don't drink a lot of coffee, but when I do, I drink a lot (of it)."

Now that makes sense.

JL


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 7:27 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "much" vs. "a lot of"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 5, 2014, at 6:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 6:14 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Isn't "much" an adverb
> >
> >
> > Sometimes. Is "I don't drink much coffee" have the same meaning as "I
> don't
> > drink coffee much," in your opinion?
> >
> I'd say no; "I don't drink coffee much, maybe three days a week, but when
> I do, I drink a lot of it."
>
> LH
>
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