Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Numerals and quantifiers 931
everyday vernacular niet erg ‘not a lot’ is usually preferred to weinig in the low
degree example in (184a′). The corresponding examples are given in (185).
(185) a. Hij vertrouwt Marie erg/zeer.
he trusts Marie much
b. Hij vertrouwt Marie niet erg.
he trusts Marie little
In the (a)-examples in (186), which involve individual-level predicates, veel/weinig
and erg/niet erg alternate without any significant semantic change. However, for
stage-level predicates that are compatible with both veel and erg, like hoesten ‘to
cough’ in (186), we find that there is a semantic distinction between these two
modifiers: whereas veel and weinig in the (b)-examples express the degree of
frequency, (niet) erg in the (c)-examples receives a purely non-quantificational,
manner interpretation.
(186) a. Hij houdt veel/erg van reizen. a′. Hij houdt weinig/niet erg van reizen.
‘He likes traveling a lot.’ ‘He doesn’t like traveling a lot.’
b. Hij hoest veel. b′. Hij hoest weinig.
‘He coughs a lot.’ ‘He doesn’t cough a lot.’
c. Hij hoest erg. c′. Hij hoest niet erg.
‘He is coughing badly.’ ‘He isn’t coughing badly.’
The contrast between (186b&c) can be replicated even more clearly in the case of
adjectival predicates, as illustrated in (187); cf. Doetjes (1997: 129). While in
(187a) afwezig means “not (physically) present”, the same adjective in (187b)
means “absent-minded”. This reflects a difference between the stage-level and the
individual-level interpretation of afwezig; veel patterns with the stage-level reading
while erg teams up with the individual-level reading. Apart from showing that veel
can degree-quantify adjectival predicates as well, the data in (187) once again
confirm that veel has difficulty quantifying individual-level predicates.
(187) a. Jan is veel afwezig. b. Jan is erg afwezig.
Jan is much absent Jan is very absent
‘Jan is often absent.’ ‘Jan is often absent-minded.’
There are two points that should be stressed in connection with the contrast
between stage-level and individual-level predicates. The first concerns transitivity.
The examples in (180b) and (184a), repeated below as (188), seem to differ in one
syntactically significant respect only: they both involve individual-level predicates,
but whereas houden van ‘to like’ selects a PP-complement, vertrouwen ‘to trust’
takes an NP-complement.
(188) a. Hij houdt veel van reizen.
he likes much of travel
‘He likes traveling a lot.’
b. *Hij vertrouwt Marie veel.
he trusts Marie much