much

[Brian Hitchcock]

What about "Much Ado About Nothing?    -- Clearly, the "much" is
adjectival; I don't think  the "nothing" is a negative licenser.

I do agree that there is a difference between "I don't drink much coffee."
and  "I don't drink  coffee much." It does matter whether "much" is used
as an adjective or as an adverb. The problem is that when it occurs
between a verb and a noun, the noun seems to claim it.  Oddly, one does
not say "I don't much drink coffee" -- or does one? This construction
would put the "much" unequivocally in an adverbial position (next to the
verb, not next to the noun).
-- bwh


At 2/5/2014 07:25 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
There has indeed been a lot of ink spilled over the negative polarity
status of "much".  Essentially, in most environments "much" needs a
negative "licenser", as those working on such phenomena call it, much as
do "any", "ever", "yet", "lift a finger", etc.

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