Re: Few vs. a few

In a message dated 10/29/2007 11:53:50 AM Central Daylight Time,
caeruleancentaur@YAHOO.COM writes:


> I notice a difference in connotation in these two expressions.  "A few
> people attended the meeting," means simply that there was a small
> number in attendance.  "Few people attended the meeting" connotes a
> certain disappointment: "There were not as many people in attendance as
> we had expected."
>
> How do you handle this in your conlangs, especially if your conlang has
> no indefinite article.
>
At this point I have only "a few" in Saweli.  I've added 'few (less than
expected' to my list of words to create.  An analogous word for 'more than
expected' will probably appear at the same time.

stevo

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