Open AccessWhy "a few" and why not *"a many"?
Author(s) -
Stephanie Solt
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.44.2006.321
Subject(s) - negation , denotation (semiotics) , predicate (mathematical logic) , argument (complex analysis) , constraint (computer aided design) , scope (computer science) , operator (biology) , mathematics , computer science , calculus (dental) , linguistics , philosophy , programming language , chemistry , geometry , repressor , transcription factor , semiotics , gene , biochemistry , medicine , dentistry
The expressions few and a few are typically considered to be separate quantifiers. I challenge this assumption, showing that with the appropriate definition of few, a few can be derived compositionally as a + few. The core of the analysis is a proposal that few has a denotation as a one-place predicate which incorporates a negation operator. From this, argument interpretations can be derived for expressions such as few students and a few students, differing only in the scope of negation. I show that this approach adequately captures the interpretive differences between few and a few. I further show that other such pairs are blocked by a constraint against the vacuous application of a.