"much" vs. "a lot of"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/15/2014 09:17 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>One more observation to add: Looking at the inspirational/motivational
>decorations in my son's guidance counselor's office, I realized that
>it's always "Live well, laugh often, love much," never "~ ~, love a lot."

Have you interviewed LDS's, polygynists, polyandrists, and rock stars?

Joel


>Wait a minute, sometimes it is "~ ~ a lot". I get 20 ghits (down from
>the estimated 14.8K). For example:
>http://www.aloveforcountry.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=488
>
>For comparison, 153K estimated for "~ ~ much"; actual number down to 312.
>
>Neal
>
>On 2/5/2014 7:25 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
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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"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>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.  That's why "I don't drink much coffee"
>>sounds better than "I drink much
>>coffee".  Depending on the syntactic frame,
>>"much" can occur in other contexts without a
>>negative licenser, e.g. before comparatives
>>("I'm feeling much better") or in equatives
>>("She drinks as much as he does") or in a few
>>other contexts ("he eats much too much").  But
>>basically a rule of thumb is that in most
>>environments in which both "a lot of" and
>>"much" can occur, the latter is a negative
>>polarity item.  There was a book I read once
>>and later cited that looked at Agatha Christie
>>novels and showed that the occurrences of
>>"much" without a negative licenser are
>>predominantly those uttered by non-native speakers, e.g. Hercule Poirot.
>>
>>(This is a bit oversimplified in that "negative
>>polarity items" will also typically occur in
>>questions ("Does he drink much?") and other
>>contexts that are not strictly negative but
>>highlight the possibility of a negation ("I'll
>>be {surprised/?relieved} if he has much to say
>>about it").   But these are again typical
>>characteristics of negative polarity items, not
>>just "much".   Notice too that while we can say
>>"Much *he* knows/cares about it", that can only
>>be interpreted ironically, i.e. = "Not much
".
>>
>>LH
>>
>>
>>On Feb 5, 2014, at 6:14 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>>
>>>Isn't "much" an adverb and "a lot of" adjectival?
>>>
>>>Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>>On Feb 5, 2014, at 5:14 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>>>
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>>>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>>Subject:      "much" vs. "a lot of"
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>A friend (born 1940s and remained in Boston area) remarked that she
>>>>would say "we have a lot of snow in New England" but not "we have
>>>>much snow in New England".  So would I (NYC).  We wondered about
>>>>that, about other verbs and objects, and negatives vs. positives.  Such as:
>>>>
>>>>"I have a lot of coffee."
>>>>"I don't drink much coffee"
>>>>
>>>>Has there been any analysis?  Is "much' vs. "a lot of" regional?
>>>>
>>>>Joel (who does not possess the usual reference books, and is
>>>>momentarily possessed by snow).
>>>>
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>
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