[Ads-l] Ever pondered this question?

[Laurence Horn]

I think it’s important in this discussion to distinguish “a few”, which is essentially a positive quantifier, from “few”, which is negative.  This is also true of the corresponding mass quantifiers “a little” (positive) vs. “little” (negative), and counterparts in French, “un peu” (positive) vs. “peu” (negative).  Linguists have written extensively about these words (Oswald Ducrot on the French ones, everyone from Dwight Bolinger to me on the English ones), citing considerable evidence for this distinction.  Consider, for example:

Few if any
Few or none
*A few if any
*A few or none

You’re going to have a little difficulty with that, in face you may have a lot of difficulty/*no difficulty at all
You’re going to have little difficulty with that, in face you may no difficulty at all/*a lot of difficulty

Few economists have ever pondered this question.
*A few economists have ever pondered this question.

The psychologists Linda Moxey and Sanford wrote a number of papers and a book supporting the psychological reality of these distinctions. 

It’s “a few” that’s a fairly close paraphrase of “several”, not the negative “few”:

*Several economists have ever pondered this question.

Unfortunately there were a few/several errors in the manuscript.
??Unfortunately there were a few/several errors in the manuscript.

LH


> On Jul 15, 2020, at 5:20 PM, Bwh031451 <bwh031451 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> “Few” can be less or more than “several”. The reason is that “several” is an absolute (though indefinite) number.  It has limits. Compare “handful”.  
> 
> “Few”, on the other hand, is a relative number, relative to some greater population. For example, “few Americans” know German—that could be millions. And “few” people in the class will get an F on the next test—probably fewer than a handful. It all depends on which population you’re referring to. 
> 
> Brian Hitchcock
> At Large
> Email:  bwh031451 at gmail.com
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org