6.246 Sum: If any/if anything

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-246. Sat 18 Feb 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 122
 
Subject: 6.246 Sum: If any/if anything
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
 
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1)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 22:50:00 +0900
From: =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCRURDZiEhVyJMQBsoQg==?=    (GCA01363 at niftyserve.or.jp)
Subject: Summary:if any/if anything
 
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 22:50:00 +0900
From: =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCRURDZiEhVyJMQBsoQg==?=    (GCA01363 at niftyserve.or.jp)
Subject: Summary:if any/if anything
 
Content-Length: 5427
 
Dear Linguists,
   My original query a couple of months ago was the following:
 
)I wanted to know the difference between _if any_ and _if anything_.
)I posed the following two examples,
)  (1) There is little, _if any_, difference between us.
)  (2) He had little, _if anything_, money with him.
)Are ther any meaning difference? If any, please tell me what the
)difference is.
 
To this query, those who responded are the following. Thanks very much
to you all:
       Laurie Bauer (Laurie.Bauer at vuw.ac.nz)
       Anthea F Gupta (ellgupta at leonis.nus.sg)
       Jakob Dempsey (jakob at u.washington.edu)
       Kirk or Deborah Yeager (kyeager at prism.nmt.edu)
       Deborah Milam Berkley (dberkley at u.washington.edu)
       Ted Harding (Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk)
       Marlene Abrams Miller (abrams at ucsfvm.ucsf.edu)
       Allan C Wechsler (Wechsler at world.std.com)
       Roger Gordon (RGordon at 130.91.8.8)
       Andy Rogers (AndyRogers at aol.com)
       Stavros Macrakis (macrakis at osf.org)
       Stephen P Spackman (spackman at dfki.uni-sb.de)
       Jeff Deby (debyj at gusun.acc.georgetown.edu)
       Eliyah Juni (ao107 at freenet.carleton.ca)
       Richard L. Lewis (rick at clarity.Princeton.EDU)
       Frank Y. Grdney (gladney at uiucvmd.bitnet)
       Paul T Barthmaier (ptb at selway.umt.edu)
       Anton Sherwood (dasher at netcom.com)
       Craig Thiersch (C.L.Thiersch at kub.nl)
       Jim Jewett (jimj at eecs.umich.edu)
       Barbara Snyder (brsnyder at calon.com)
       Steven Schaufele (fcosws at firefly.prairienet.org)
       Caitlin Walker (caitlin at cusl.ulcc.ac.uk)
       Hala'sz Sa'ndor (halasz at kewszeg.norden1.com)
 
   All of them do not accept (2) because _if anything_ doe not
modify a noun but only _if any_ can modify a noun. _If anything_ is
a preposition, as one of them answers. Acutally, (2) is taken from the
first version of a most famous and best-selling medium-sized English-
Japanes Dictionary, which made me think it is a correct sentence(I made
a mistake). In the second version of that dictionary recently revised,
the sentence is replaced by a grammatical one.
   Laurie Bauer judges (3) is perfectly OK but (4) is marginal.
  (3) He had little, _if anything_, with him.
  (4) He had little money, _if anything_, with him.
I don't understand why such a difference.
   If there is any differnce, as Ted Harding says, "..., if any, X..."
means that there may be no X at all involved; but if there is then "..."
regardless of what may be true of anything which is not X; so (1) means
simply that there is hardly any difference and there may be none. (2')
(He had little, if any, money with him, which is a correct version of
(2)) means simply he either had very little money or no money: he may
have a lot of other things.
   On other other hand, "...X, if anything,..."means that of all the
things that might be involved it is X and nothing else (but may not
even X). So the corresponding re-wirte of (2) "He had little money with
him, if anything." means: if he had anithing with him at all it was at
best a little money and nothing else.
   It was only Ted Harding who pointed out the difference.
 
   There were many respondants who gave examples which mean another
sense of _if anything_ mostly at the top of the sentence. It implies
that "You may think X has effect E. In fact, if it has any effect at
all, (it probably has the opposite)...(Stavros Macrakis)" Or contrastive
sense(Steven Schaufele)
  (5) If anything, we would like to decide what to do about
      the drains. (Ted Harding)
  (6) If anything, wood sding should increase the value of the house.
      (Paraphrase: If wood siding changes the value of the house at all,
       it will probably increase it, not decrease it.)(Stravros Macrakis)
  (7) I wouldn't say Tim is lazy. In fact, if anything, he contributed
      as much to the project as any of the rest of us. (Steven Schaufele)
(5)-(7) roughly have the meaning "Or rather; On the other hand." Am I
right?
   One thing I don't understand is Caitlin Walker's unacceptable
examples as in:
  (8) a. She should, if anything, be promoted to manager.
      b. *She should, if any, be promoted to manager.
  (9) a. She had little, if anything (,) in the way of money.
      b. *She had little, if any(,) in the way of money.
Will somebody help me to explain why (b)'s are unacceptable? Or is
there no problem at all, as againt the judgement of Caitlin Walker?
 
   As I get into this problem (at first I was only asked by a graduate
student), it has caused me a lot of trouble. Anyway, thanks a lot again.
 
Best wishes,
Hiroaki Tanaka,
Associate Professor, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences,
Tokushima university.
GCA01363 at niftyserve.or.jp
 
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