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6.2.5.Modification of quantifiers

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As we have already briefly mentioned, the universal and degree quantifiers discussed here can be modified by means of adverbial phrases: this is not possible with existential quantifiers. The following subsections briefly discuss the various possibilities.

I. Universal quantifiers
II. Negative existential quantifiers
III. Degree quantifiers

[+] I. Universal quantifiers

Universal quantifiers are typically modified by approximative modifiers like bijna'nearly', nagenoeg'almost', vrijwel'nearly' and zowat'about'. Some examples are given in (172).

172

a.		Bijna/vrijwel/zowat	iedereen	is op vakantie.
		nearly/nearly/about	everyone	is on holiday

b.		Bijna/vrijwel/zowat	alle boeken	zijn	verkocht.
		nearly/nearly/about	all books	are	sold

Being subject to modification by the approximative modifiers is a typical property of all universally quantified elements. It also holds for the pre-determiners al and heel in (173a&b), which are more extensively discussed in Chapter 7, and for universally quantified adverbial phrases like nooit'never', etc.

173

a.		Bijna	al	de boeken	zijn verkocht.
		nearly	all	the books	are sold

b.		Bijna	heel	het huis	is schoon	gemaakt.
		nearly	whole	the house	is clean	made

c.		Hij	is bijna	nooit	thuis.
		he	is virtually	never	at.home

In addition to the approximate modifiers above, universal quantifiers can be modified by modifiers that emphasize the fact that all entities satisfying the description are included, like echt'really', letterlijk'literally', volstrekt'completely', werkelijk'really', etc.

174

a.		Hij	heeft	echt	alles/alle boeken	gelezen.
		he	has	really	all/all books	read

b.		Hij	heeft	met werkelijk/letterlijk iedereen/alle buren	ruzie.
		he	has	with really/literally everyone/all neighbors	quarrel

Another way to achieve the same semantic effect is by using the X maar dan ook X construction in (175), involving the conjunction maar. Note that the emphasizing modifiers illustrated in (174) can also be part of the second conjunct of this construction; cf. Hoeksema (2001).

175

a.		Hij	heeft	alles,	maar	dan ook	(echt)	alles	gelezen.
		he	has	all	but	dan ook	really	all	read

b.		Hij	heeft	alle,	maar	dan ook	echt	alle	boeken	gelezen.
		he	has	all	but	dan ook	really	all	books	read

[+] II. Negative existential quantifiers

Approximative modifiers can be used not only with universal quantifiers, but also with negatively quantified noun phrases such as niemand'nobody' or geen boek'no book'. This is, of course, not surprising given the fact that a negatively quantified phrase can readily be paraphrased by means of a universal quantifier; cf. the equivalence rule ¬∃Φ ↔ ∀¬Φ.

176

a.		bijna	niemand
		nearly	nobody

b.		bijna	geen student/studenten
		virtually	no student/students

It is also possible to use modifiers that emphasize that no entity satisfying the description is included, like echt'really', letterlijk'literally', volstrekt'completely', werkelijk'really', etc. The X maar dan ook X construction can also be used to achieve this semantic effect. If the conjunction involves the negative article geen, as in (177c), there is a strong preference to also include a modifier like werkelijk. In all these examples, the modified noun phrase is assigned contrastive accent.

177

a.		Er	was	werkelijk	niemand/geen mens	aanwezig.
		there	was	literally	nobody/no person	present

b.		Er	was	niemand	maar	dan ook	(werkelijk)	niemand	aanwezig.
		there	was	nobody	but	dan ook	really	nobody	present

c.		Er	was	geen,	maar	dan ook	??(werkelijk)	geen mens	aanwezig.
		there	was	no,	but	dan ook	really	no person	present

[+] III. Degree quantifiers

Uninflected high/low degree quantifiers veel and weinig can also be modified by means of degree modifiers, and in this respect these quantifiers pattern more or less like gradable adjectives. The inflected forms vele and weinige, on the other hand, defy modification, regardless of whether they are preceded by a determiner or not. This is shown by the examples in (178).

178

a.		erg/heel/te	veel/weinig	boeken
		very/very/too	many/few	books

b.	*	(de)	erg/heel/te	vele/weinige	boeken
		the	very/very/too	many/few	books

This restriction on modification of the inflected forms seems to coincide with the restrictions on comparative formation: whereas meer'more' can be readily used in (179a), it gives rise to an ungrammatical result in (179b); note that de mindere boeken is acceptable under the, here irrelevant, reading “the books of lower quality”.

179

a.		meer/minder	boeken
		more/less	books

b.	*	(de)	mere/mindere	boeken
		the	more/less	books

Like most gradable adjectives, veel and weinig have an interrogative counterpart, namely hoeveel'how many/much'. Although hoeveel is normally written as a single word, the fact that it contains the element veel suggests that veel is the neutral form of the antonym pair veel: weinig. Finally, it can be observed that weinig can be coordinated with the quantified pronoun niets'nothing' or with the negative article geen'no', with the resulting meaning “hardly any(thing)”.

180

a.	Hij	heeft	weinig of geen	boeken	gelezen.
	he	has	few or no	books	read
	'He has read hardly any books.'

b.	Hij	heeft	weinig of niets	gelezen.
	he	has	little or nothing	read
	'He has read hardly anything.'

The quantifier voldoende'enough' can be modified by ruim'amply', which indicates that the implicit norm is satisfied to more than a sufficient extent. The degree quantifiers genoeg'enough' and zat'plenty' lack this possibility. Both voldoende and genoeg, but not zat, can be modified by net'just', which indicates that lower bound of the implicit norm has just been met.

181

a.		Er	zijn	hier	ruim/net	voldoende	computers.
		there	are	here	amply/just	enough	computers

b.		Er	zijn	hier	net/*ruim	genoeg	computers.
		there	are	here	amply/just	enough	computers

c.	*	Er	zijn	hier	ruim/net	zat	computers.
		there	are	here	amply/just	plenty	computers

Example (182a) contains the sequence meer dan voldoende/genoeg. Given that meer is the comparative form of the degree quantifier veel, this example raises the question as to whether the quantifier meer modifies voldoende/genoeg or whether it is the other way around. The latter analysis can be supported by claiming that a comparative is normally modified by means of a dan-phrase. However, this particular use of the dan-phrase would be special in that it must precede, and cannot follow, the modified noun, as shown by the (a)-examples in (182); as is illustrated by the (b)-examples, dan-phrases used as modifiers of comparatives normally do not precede the modified noun. This fact may be given in support of the former analysis, according to which it is the comparative meer that modifies the degree quantifier; see Section 6.1.1.4, sub IV, for a similar constructions with cardinal numerals.