Use of Much with Adjectives

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Roro

#122647 Sat, 30 Jul 05 02:40 PM

Hello paco!
Maybe we have little common, but I'm glad to come to know you in this forum.
(And .. I'd like to write this sentence in a small size [if I could] .. I'm glad that you're Japanese.)

A grief of architects: his efforts are not rewarded if material limits don't permit their imagination to be realized...

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Hello rvw again,
it seems to me, you're searching for some reason to oppose to formal treatment of the issue. Right?
You may be right. I don't know, I'm wondering still.
See you,

Roro

Joined on Mon, Apr 11 2005

Regular Member (581)

nona the brit

#122651 Sat, 30 Jul 05 03:32 PM

[Roro

1] I ran yesterday very much/greatly/a lot.
[2] I ran a mile yesterday very much/greatly/a lot.

2) Does not work because you have specified a distance - one mile. How do you run a mile very much? Take out the yesterday part and see if you make more sense of what you are trying to say.

When you say you ran very much/greatly/a lot, it sounds as though you either ran a long distance or for a long time. Well, a mile is a mile so the distance use of vm/g/al does not work. And if you mean that you spent a lot of time running a mile you need to say 'I ran a mile slowly'.

Your word order needs a bit of work as well. 1) would be better as I ran very much/a lot yesterday. Greatly does not really work that well in this context.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,301)

The name says it all.

Word order

Roro

#122656 Sat, 30 Jul 05 03:58 PM

Hello nona the brit!
Thank you for your kind help.
So you think [2] doesn't work. This sentence sounds odd, in Japanese too. I don't have any positive conformation yet, but in Russian too (it seems to me so; that is, the combination 'perfective+intencifier' seems somewhat strange for me).

But! Would you ask [How do you run a mile very much]? although we can [run very much]? This is what I wanted to know in the first place. We can say [I ran a mile slowly yesterday], but not [I ran a mile very much/a lot(/greatly) yesterday].

What do 'slowly' or 'a lot' modify...?
Do they work differently..? I got interested in such a kind of question now! I'm suffering by this question..!

As to word order and collocation, I'm grateful for your suggestion. I didn't know that. I'd like to rely on your further help, dear nona!
A million thanks to you!

Roro

Word order

Anonymous

#122659 Sat, 30 Jul 05 04:54 PM

Hello nona the brit! (It's Roro)
There's a grammatical mistake, so I'd like to edit it. (But I cannot; there's a display:
Invalid User Credentials
The username and/or password cannot be validated, or your account is locked out or has not been approved yet. {Why? I hope this is only temporaly disorder....}

Anyway I'd like to correct my mistake: not [I'm suffering] but [I've been suffering], isn't it.

Thank you, nona! and everyone, too.

Anonymous

MrPedantic

#122722 Sun, 31 Jul 05 12:23 AM

Hello Roro

[1'] She isn't greatly to be admired.

[2'] She isn't greatly missed.

[4'] She isn't greatly missing her family.

Yes, those are all fine. But a strange thing: without context, the positive versions of these sentences sound 'straightforward'. They mean what they say. But the negative versions have an air of irony – in other words, they aren't simple 180 degree negations of the positives.

'She is greatly missing her family' – she feels a little tearful when she thinks of them.

'She isn't greatly missing her family' – she spends every night clubbing and doesn't give her family a second thought. (Perhaps not even a first thought.)

(Sorry if someone has already answered this post. I haven't yet read through the tail of the thread.)

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Wed, Oct 13 2004

Veteran Member (11,960)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Irony, Negations, Negatives

MrPedantic

#122723 Sun, 31 Jul 05 12:26 AM

Rvw wrote:

Negative polarity was mentioned several times in this topic. An English professor I talked to said such items constitute a sub-language that has developed on its own, independent of affirmative usages. I have a theory: negative polarity items have evolved to make the distinction between affimation and negation even sharper. Not only do we say not, but we also use a word or phrase that is only used in negations. In this way the meaning is clear and is emphasized.

They did not spend one red cent on toxic waste cleanup.
He didn't budge.
He hasn't arrived yet.
He hasn't been here in ages.
I can't seem to find my glasses.

Interesting. Almost double negatives. 'ne...pas', 'ne...nat', 'not...at all'.

MrP

MrPedantic

Negations, Negatives

MrPedantic

#122727 Sun, 31 Jul 05 12:31 AM

..." I take it as "The story is very/truly of a quality to interest people" rather than as "The story is of a quality to interest people very much/truly"...

Yes, I'd agree.

When a present participle is 'adjectivised', it seems to be 'intransitivised' as well.

MrP

MrPedantic