Re: Do you want a French "little" or a Dutch "little"? :))

 --- Christophe wrote:

> During my ongoing e-mail conversation with Hanuman Chang, at one moment came
> the subject of the difference between a French "little" and a Dutch "little",
> [...]
> if a French cook asked me to put "a little" butter in a pan, I would put just
> enough to make the pan slightly greasy, and I find that normal. On the other
> hand, when Jan asks me to put "a little" butter in the pan, he expects me to
> put about 50g of butter, so that the whole thing bathes into water!!! And
> I've witnessed that he is not special in this case, and that at least
> Southern Dutch people have the same conception of "little" as his, a
> conception which is about 5 times as big as mine!!
Yes, but we make up for that, too. If you order "a huge beer" in Holland, you
will probably receive 0,5 l, perhaps even 0,3 l... Much less than a "small"
beer in Germany or Austria.

> So to bring back the subject to conlang matters, I've been wondering how you
> people thought about the quantifiers in your conlangs, and if you actually
> thought of those problems of presupposed value of a "little" in your
> conlangs.
Your are right. The only quantifiers that are culturally neutral, are
"everything" and "nothing". But how much is "some", "little", "much",
"almost full", "a bit", etc.?
In Holland, especially in the North I would say, we definitely have a tendency
towards the overuse of such weakening modifiers. But since I am leaving not, I
am not going to elaborate on that. Lucky you!!! :)


=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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