Non-Absolute Adjectives

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[Poll]

Non-Absolute Adjectives

Most, Many, Half, Some, Few

100% (5)

Most, Many, Some, Half, Few

0% (0)

Most, Half, Many, Some, Few

0% (0)

Most, Many, Half, Few, Some

0% (0)

Most, Half, Many, Few, Some

0% (0)

Total Votes : 5

(last vote on : 2/14/2012 5:40:16 PM)
(Poll will run till: -- )

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Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/15/2012 1:12:56 PM

SilverBoat

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Maybe this has been asked before, but I didn't find it yet, so here goes:

"All" and "None" (or "No") have definitions that are absolutely clear. When used as adjectives, those words don't allow any weaseling about the intended statement.

Even "Half" and "Most" and "Few" have reasonably clear meanings relative to each other: Most is more than Half, Few is less than Half.

However, "Many" and "Some" seem to be very slippery and at times even deliberately indefinite or plausibly deniable qualifiers, if not the root-stuff of rhetorical gambits and fallacious arguments. For all that "Many" should be somewhat opposite in sense from "Few" and "Some" opposite from "Most", where do they fit along the spectrum of less-than-definite quantity?

Anyway, here's your chance to rank 'em in order. Have fun, pick one, or add another.

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/15/2012 1:45:41 PM

Miserlou

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some only implies that there are a number of people (or whatever is being discussed) to whom the statement implies, it in no way implies a comparative, so it doesn't fit into the most/least and many/few continuums.

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/15/2012 7:08:51 PM

DesFIP

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There's also several. A couple is two usually. Is a few three? Several, is that five or seven? And is many ten and above?

Basically it's like cooking, a pinch, a smidgen, slow oven, hot oven. You know what it means to you but not to anyone else.

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/16/2012 6:06:22 AM

SilverBoat

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Yeah, I almost put several into the list, but the combinations got too complicated.

Several would be more than two, but yeah, it could overlap with Few.

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/16/2012 6:27:32 AM

Hillwilliam

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A bunch, a shitload, gobs, scads, damnfew

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/16/2012 7:44:37 AM

Kaliko

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Most of the time I like to answer polls like these, but there are several that I have to bypass some of the time. A few here and there have caught my eye and half the time I stop to write something, but I have never been able to address all of them in such a way as to capture such a fuckload of responses.

Wait...fuckload isn't on the list. Invalid poll.

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RE: Non-Absolute Adjectives - 1/19/2012 8:58:39 PM

LadyPact

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Kaliko, I'm getting you for that.

I'm another one who didn't answer your poll, OP. I'm rather annoying about this because when it comes to terms like many and some, it has to be considered in relation to the number we're speaking about. Forty-five people out of a hundred could still be many, depending on perspective, couldn't it?

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