Subject: sum : size adjs and quantifiers

about a month ago , i posted the following query : i ' m looking for examples , from any language , of quantifiers that are formally related to size adjectives . so far , i am familiar with the following three examples : english : little > a little lao : nohy5 > nohy5 neu : ng2 little little one " little " " a little " minangkabau : ketek > saketek little one-little " little " " a little " is anybody familiar with more such examples ? in spite of the typological and geographical diversity of these three languages , the above constructions are strikingly similar . this raises the following further questions : ( 1 ) are there any analogous examples where " many " is derived from " big " ? ( 2 ) are there any examples where the derivation is in the other direction , ie . where a size adjective , eg . " little " is derived from a quantifier , eg . " a few " ? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * the above query triggered numerous interesting responses , for which i am grateful to the following residents of the global virtual village : robert beard , steven berbeco , jonathan david bobaljik , john cowan , jane edwards , f . gladney , arthur holmer , knut lambrecht , pierre larrivee , ann lindvall , edith moravcsik , geoffrey s . nathan , chris pountain , ines shaw , nancy stenson , frits stuurman , cynthia vakareliyska , 0ystein alexander vangsnes , peansiri vongvipanond , and a person who wished to remain anonymous . in a nutshell , all of the responses but one provided data from european languages . i do not know enough to say whether this areal patterning is of the phenomenon in question , or rather of the respondents to the query , and the languages that they are familiar with . however , the data suggested that formal relationships between quantifiers and size adjectives are indeed widespread , and provided an affirmative answer to the first specific query , with examples of the derivation of " many " from " big " . in what follows , i provide a selection of typical responses ( if anybody wants the responses in their entirety , they can contact me directly ) . some more examples of " little " > " a little " : swedish : liten > lite " little " " a little " irish : beag > beaga ' n " little " " a little " french : petit > un petit " little " " a little " russian : mal / malo / mala > malo " little " " a little " ( short predicate forms ) polish : maly > malo " little " " a little " bulgarian : maluk / malko / malka > malko " little " " a little " some respondents offered interesting diachronic comments : " [ t ] he latin adjectives for ' little ' , parvus and paulus , were replaced by what is often seen as an ' onomatopoeic ' creation ( * pittinnus for spanish ) . the adverb parum , which is morphologically related to parvus is replaced by a form * paucu , which existed in classical latin only in the plural ( pauci ) with the meaning ' ( a ) few ' . in the medieval romance languages , old spanish _ poco _ , old catalan _ poc _ and old occitan _ pauc _ are however attested in the meaning of ' little ' . " [ chris pountain ] " [ t ] he latin root is from ie * pou / pau , which gives english few , foal , as well as latin ( and english ) pauper , poverty , not to mention greek paed ` child ' ( paediatrician etc . ) so all the ` small ' and ` few ' meanings are intermingled throughout all the ie etyma . " [ geoffrey s . nathan ] and now , in response to question ( 1 ) , some examples of " big " > " many " : quebec french : gros > gros gros " big " " a lot " irish : mo ' r > mo ' ra ' n " big " " a lot " ( negative polarity ) polish : duzy > duzo " big " " a lot " and a general diachronic comment : " slavic _ comparative _ quantifier " more " has the same root ( bol - ) as adj " big " ( old church slavonic bolii , modern russian bol 's hoj ) . " many / much " is mnogo / mnogi in the slavic languages , root * minog - ( short i ) - - there 's no etymologically related adj meaning " big " . ( the root in the comparative shows up as * bolj - in the comparative quantifier and adjs , but i am assuming the j is a suffix [ . . . ] . i think russian is the only modern language where this root still shows up in the adj . " big " , though all of them except modern bulgarian ( and probably macedonian ) still have the comparative quantifier in bol . vasmer 's etymological dictionary of the russian language relates the root to sanskrit baliyan ( acute accent on first a , long mark over i and second a ) , " stronger " , balisthas ( acute over first a , dot under first s and t ) , " strongest " , " balam " ( acute over first a ) " strength " . russian has two different comparative forms with this root in addition to the adj " big " ( bol 's hoj ) : comparative quantifier bol 's he ( as in " more money " ) and adverb bolee ( as in " more interesting " ) . " [ cynthia vakareliyska ] as for question ( 2 ) , pertaining to derivations in the opposite direction ( from quantifier to size adjective ) , here the evidence is still less clear . one respondent [ ann lindvall ] suggested some possible examples from swedish and greek . in fact , in the above slavic examples , the directionality is not immediately clear , and may perhaps be most appropriately characterized as a nondirectional identity of ( neuter-form ) adjective and quantifier . however , i still have n't encountered any uncontroversial examples of size adjectives that are derived from quantifiers . finally , two interesting comments on related phenomena : " hungarian : ' a little ' or 's omewhat ' ( such as in " she is a little late . " or " a somewhat over-ripe pear was lying on the table . " ) : _ kicsit _ , which consists of _ kicsi _ ( predicative form of the the adjective for 's mall ' ) plus _ t _ , the accusative marker ' very ' , ' extremely ' ( such as in the above sentences , with " little " / " somewhat " replaced with " very " / " extremely " ) : _ nagyon _ , which consists of _ nagy _ ' big ' and _ on _ , a de - adjectival adverbializer . these are ad-verbal and ad-adjectival quantifiers . adnominal quantifiers such as ' many ' and ' few ' do not have to do with size adjectives . " [ edith moravcsik ] " i suspect that the thai and lao adverb ( ? ) nak " great deal , a lot " and the adjective nak " heavy " are derivatives of one another ( strange ? ) through grammaticalization . this verbal quantifier is more prevalent in lao , lanna thai dialect and isan dialect ( all geographically and historically related ) than in bangkok thai . " [ peansiri vongvipanond ]
