[Lingtyp] R: Approximative numerals with emotive content

Tue Feb 22 16:23:20 UTC 2022

Dear Amanda,

personally in Italian I use *trenta *(30), *trentamila *(30.000),
*diciassettemila
*(17.000), *quarantamila *(40.000), cinquantamila (50.000),
quarantasettemila (47.000), *settantamila* (70.000), *mille *(1000), *millemila
*(not a real number: means ‘one thousand thousands’), *centomila *(‘100.000’),
*centocinquantamila *(150.000), *cinquecentomila *(500.000), un milione (a
million). These all have a pragmatic nuance of annoyance and complaining,
for me. Usual contexts are "I've told you this already 47.000 times!",
"students always have 17.000 questions one has to reply to", "your building
has 50.000 different staircases, I always get lost' et similia.

Now, Looking briefly online, I’ve only found *mille, trentamila *and
*centocinquantamila
*as conventionalized expressions for an undetermined large amount. I am not
really sure whether the above mentioned numbers are just my idiolect or
other people in Italy use them, too - I never paid too much attention. It's
my impression that in Italian you can use any number in the thousands in
this function.

The expressions un centinaio/un migliaio Paolo Ramat mentioned  before are
widely used as generic expressions for "many", only they don't have (at
least that's my intuition) a particular emotive value.

Sorry if this was more impressionistic than informative, hope you can find
more information!

All the best

Lidia

Inviato da Posta <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> per
Windows

*Da: *Amanda Kann <amanda.kann at su.se>
*Inviato: *martedì 22 febbraio 2022 15:28
*A: *lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
*Oggetto: *[Lingtyp] Approximative numerals with emotive content

Dear typologists,

(Apologies to those who have already seen this query through LinguistList!)

I'm looking for corresponding expressions (in any language) to the
approximative numeral phrases in the examples below – conventionalized
numeral expressions which typically express larger, approximate numeric
quantities and encode some kind of emotive function.
I'm interested in the composition and value of these numerals, as well as
their emphatic and emotive functions – if there are other expressions in
the numeral domain in your language(s) that carry a similar illocutionary
force, I would love to hear about them as well!

Swedish [swe]: (from Bloggmix 2013, accessed through
http://spraakbanken.gu.se/korp)
Det finns nämligen femtioelva sorters myror.
'There are actually many types of ants' (lit. 'There are actually
fifty-eleven types of ants')

French [fra]: (Lavric 2010, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004253247_008)
Il n’y a pas trente-six façons de voir la chose.
'There aren't very many ways of seeing the thing' (lit. 'There aren't
thirty-six ways of seeing the thing')

Danish [dan]: (from OpenSubtitles2018, accessed through http://opus.nlpl.eu)
Han fortalte mig 117 gange, at han ikke gjorde hende noget.
'He told me a thousand times that he didn't do anything to her' (lit. 'He
told me 117 times that he didn't do anything to her')

English [eng]: (from OpenSubtitles2018, accessed through http://opus.nlpl.eu
)
For the umpteenth time, we are not getting a dog.

Thank you very much in advance for any tips, examples or comments!

Best regards,

Amanda Kann

*____________________________________*

*Amanda Kann*

Institutionen för lingvistik | *Department of **Linguistics*

*Stockholms universitet | Stockholm University*
106 91 Stockholm

*amanda.kann at su.se <amanda.kann at su.se>*
www.ling.su.se

Personuppgiftsbehandling vid Stockholms universitet
<https://www.su.se/om-webbplats-cookies/personuppgifter>
*____________________________________*
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