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Quantifiers

quickinfo

Beside the regular definite cardinals, there is a group expressions denoting an amount, which are not part of the regular arithmetical system. For example, the following words belong to this group (see Popkema (2006:158-160)): al/alle all, ferskate several, inkelde some, ytlike several, sommige some, guon some, folle much, safolle that many, tefolle too much, wittefolle very much, wat some, gâns much, genôch enough, rju much, temin too little/few, in bulte / hopen / protte / smite / soad very much, a lot of, in bytsje a little, few, party much, in snies group of twenty, in dozyn a dozen, in gros a gross, in (stik)mannich a couple of and in stik of/as wat a couple of. As can be seen, some of these examples are morphologically or syntactically complex.

Quantifiers can be divided according to different criteria. As far as count nouns is concerned, many take plural nouns as a complement, but quantifiers like elts every or mannich many only take singular nouns, even if their semantics is plural. The exact amount of the quantification can mostly not be established, but with an expression like in dozyn a dozen we know that the cardinal 12 is meant. Quantifiers are normally positioned in front of the quantified noun, but an item like genôch enough may also follow the noun.

If Frisian quantifiers occur in nominal ellipsis, they may display some special forms. Most of them display a suffix -en, but others, for instance guon some have more possibilities.

A relatively large part of this topic is devoted to some individual quantifiers, where these display various idiosyncrasies. Separate sections are alloted to those covering the semantic field of 'much/many' and 'few/little', since the standard items folle and min display a restricted distribution.

What is quantified?
Internal make-up
Position with respect to the noun
Nominal ellipsis
Much/many
Few/little
Particular aspects of some other individual quantifiers

[+]What is quantified?

The first distinction for quantifiers has to do with which kind of nouns are quantified. Most quantifiers take plural count nouns, but some are restricted to singular count nouns. Examples are shown in the table below:

Table 1

Plural	Singular
beide both	elts/elk each
ferskate/ferskeidene several	ider every
ferskillende various	mannich a few; many
folle many
ienige some, a few
ytlike innumerable
sommige/somlike some
ûnderskate various
alle all
guon some
in pear a few
in bytsje a little
gâns much; many
party many

An exception to this distinction is inkeld(e) a single, a few, which takes plural and singular count nouns:

Mar in inkeld hûs hie gjin fersiering yn 'e tún

only a single house.SG had no decoration in the garden

Only a single house did not have decorations in the garden

Mar inkelde hûzen hienen gjin fersiering yn 'e tún

only few house.PL had no decoration in the garden

Only a few of the houses did not have decorations in the garden

Compare this with a quantifier that obligatorily combines with a plural noun:

*In sommich hûs hie gjin fersiering yn 'e tún

a some house.SG had no decoration in the garden

Some of the houses did not have decorations in the garden

Sommige hûzen hienen gjin fersiering yn 'e tún

some house.PL had no decoration in the garden

Some of the houses did not have decorations in the garden

In addition to count nouns, some quantifiers can also be combined with mass nouns. These are in bytsje, in soad, gâns, alle and folle. For example:

alle tafels

all table.PL

all tables

alle hout

all wood

all of the wood

In contrast, a quantifier like beide both is only allowed with a count noun:

beide tafels

both table.PL

both tables

*beide hout

both wood

*both wood

Instead of alle, the forms al de all the or al it all the can be used as well, with article de or it regularly dependent on the gender of the noun. Thus next to alle hout all-INFL wood we also have al it hout all the.N wood.N.

[+]Internal make-up

Quantifiers can consist of one word, or be made up by a wordgroup. The first table shows the quantifiers that consist of one word:

Table 2

Form	Translation
al/alle	all
ferskate	several
ferskillende	various
inkelde	some
ytlike	several
sommige	some
guon	some
folle	much
temin	too little/few
wat	some
gâns	much
genôch	enough
rju	much
party	much
ienige	some, a few
ûnderskate	various
guon	some
elts/elk	each
ider	every
mannich	a few; many
neat	nothing
gjin(t)	none
alles	everything
allegearre	every-one

If a quantifier consists of a wordgroup, these wordgroups are mostly composed of a noun in combination with the indefinite article, as shown in the following table:

Table 3

Form	Translation
in bulte	very much, a lot of
in hopen	very much, a lot of
in protte	very much, a lot of
in smite	very much, a lot of
in soad	very much, a lot of
in bytsje	a little, few
in pear	a little, few
in snies	group of twenty
in dozyn	a dozen
in gros	a gross
in stik of/as wat	a couple of
in (stik)mannich	a couple of
elk foar oar	one by one

A few Adposition Phrases (PPs), always headed by the preposition by by, also act as quantifiers. The most important are by de bult, by de rûs, by it seksje, by't soad, by it poarsje, and older by it hier. The first of these can even be intensified alliteratively in by de bare bult. It can also be plurified: by bult-en. Some other expressions only occur with a plural Noun Phrase (NP): by protten, by kloften, by keppels. All these expressions have the meaning 'galore'. As a existential quantifier, they only combine with bare NPs:

Jan hat boeken by de bult

Jan has books by the heap

Jan has heaps of books

b.	*Jan hat de boeken by de bult
	Jan has the books by the heap

extra

Literature

The only Dutch equivalent for these expressions is the PP bij de vleet galore. It is dealt with in Hoeksema (2012). Many of the remarks in his paper also apply to the Frisian cognates. A Frisian follow-up of his study is Hoekstra (2014). He argues that the expressions have developed from PPs with the distributive preposition by by. Hoekstra also presents a syntactic analysis. A Frisian single word with more or less the same properties is planteit, a loan via Dutch planteit from Old French plenté (cf. English plenty).

In contrast to cardinal numbers, most quantifiers do not have an exact meaning; they only induce a rough estimate. A few exceptions are listed in the table below:

Table 4

Form	Translation
in snies	20 (almost exclusively said of eggs)
in dozyn	a dozen, 12
in gros	a gross, 144

extra

Some quantifiers may also be seen as indefinite pronouns. Examples are neat nothing, gjin none and alles everything. See Indefinite pronouns.

[+]Position with respect to the noun

As a rule, a numeral precedes the noun. This also applies to quantifiers: we have gâns minsken many people and not *minsken gâns. An exception to this rule is the item genôch enough; this may also occur after the noun (see Hoekstra (1990)). However, this postposition may effect a slight semantic difference. If occurring before a noun, genôch simply means enough. When positioned after a noun, its meaning may turn into more than enough:

genôch jild

enough money

Der is jild genôch

there is money enough

There is more than enough money

Furthermore, the pairs tefolle/temin too much / too few and mear/minder more/less can also be placed after the noun. However, if this is the case with the latter pair, the noun must be preceded by a measure phrase:

Ik fertsjinje mear/minder jild as ferliden jier

I earn more/less money than last year

*Ik fertsjinje jild mear/minder as ferliden jier

I earn money more/less than last year

I earn more/less money than last year

Ik fertsjinje hûndert gûne mear/minder as ferliden jier

I earn one-hundred guilders more/less than last year

Another quantifier that may occur after the noun is the Dutch loan sat enough, as in wy ha noch tiid sat we have more than enough time left. Quantifying PPs like by't soad galore are also more free with respect to word order.

extra

No inflection

In Dutch, some indefinite quantifiers may be inflected if they are preceded by a definite article. Compare Dutch veel geld lot money.SG lots of money and het vele geld the lot-INFL money. In Frisian, indefinite quantifiers can never be inflected. For instance, we have gâns minsken many people, but not *gânse minsken. See also (Hoekstra (1992)).

[+]Nominal ellipsis

If a quantifier is involved in nominal ellipsis, it usually retains its original form. Quantifiers that take plural count nouns as a complement may also be augmented be a final -n if they occupy the position directly in front of the elided noun. This applies to the following items: beide both, ferskate/ferskeidene several, ferskillende various, folle many, ytlike several, sommige/somlike some and ûnderskate various. They all end in an inherent schwa, so one might also assume that it is not the ending -n that is attached, but rather a suffix -en. An example is the following:

Der wienen moaie skuon te keap, mar sommige waarden dochs net ferkocht

there were nice shoes to buy but some ___ were still not sold

They had nice shoes for sale there, but some of them still weren't sold

Der wienen moaie skuon te keap, mar sommigen waarden dochs net ferkocht

there were nice shoes to buy but some were still not sold

They had nice shoes for sale there, but some of them still weren't sold

Of the quantifiers that combine with plural forms, alle all shows a remarkable form in ellipsis. It may strand:

Net in pear dielnimmers bleaune thús, mar alle

not a few participators stayed at-home, but all ___

Not a few participators stayed at home, but all of them

More common in an elliptical construction, however, is the partial suppletive form allegearre every-one.

Guon some can also appear in nominal ellipsis. It has a lot of additional (sometimes dialectical) variants: guont, guons, guonts, guonnen, guonnent, guodzen, guodden, guoddens and guods.

The quantifiers that take a single count noun (elts/elke each, ider every, mannich a few; many, in inkeld some; a few) can also appear in elliptical use, but then they are usually augmented by the endings -ien or -enien. Thus we get mannichien and mannigenien, iderien (not *iderenien), in inkeldenien, eltsenien/elkenien (not *eltsien/elkien). An example is:

Net allinich earme minsken stjerre, mar eltsenien

not only poor people die, but everyone

Not only poor people die, but everyone

Of the quantifiers that take mass nouns, alle all obligatorily takes the form alles everything in an elliptical context:

*Der wie gâns hout te keap, mar alle waard net ferkocht

there was a-lot-of wood for sale, but all ___ was not sold

A lot of wood was for sale there, but not all was sold

Der wie gâns hout te keap, en alles waard ferkocht

there was a-lot-of wood for sale, and all ___ was sold

A lot of wood was for sale there, and all of it was sold

In other words, quantifiers may sometimes take extra endings in case of nominal ellipsis. When the quantifier combines with plural nouns, this extra ending is -en. On the other hand, with singular nouns we see more variation, depending on the choice of the quantifier. We then have -en, -ien or -enien. Apart from some idiosyncratic properties, we thus see that quantifiers largely show the same behaviour as Frisian adjectives, in that the choice of the extra forms depends on singularity or plurality (see nominal ellipsis). Moreover, alle and guon show even more possibilities. For the sake of clarity and completeness, it should be noted that not all Frisian quantifiers have been dealt with here. With such quantifiers like in pear a few, in bytsje a little, gâns much; many or party many nothing special is going on in elliptical contexts.

extra

Literature

Most of this section is based on Dyk (2011).

[+]Much/many

Some quantifiers that cover the meanings of 'much/many' and 'few/little' display several distributional restrictions. The expected unmarked item would be folle, compare Dutch veel and German viel. However, although in the 19th century still in free use, the quantifier folle much/many nowadays is a negative polarity item, which implies that it can only be used in combination with a negation, and with a few adverbs in the compounds safolle that much/many, tefolle too much/many, hoefolle how much/many and wittefolle very much/many. More in particular with respect to negation, we do find folle in the following contexts (see also (Hoekstra 2000:126)):

In the scope of a negative adverb:

Der ha net folle besikers by de útstalling west

there have not many visitors at the exhibition been

Not many people visited the exhibition

In 'negative raising' sentences:

Ik wol net leauwe, dat se folle blebberbeien fûn ha

I will not believe, that they many blueberries found have

I do not think that they found many blueberries

In the scope of the negative preposition sûnder without:

Sûnder folle wurden naam se ôfskie

without many words took she leave

Without many words she took leave

In the complement of dubitative verbs:

Ik freegje my ôf, oft er folle Arabysk ken

I wonder, if-that he much Arabian knows

I wonder if he knows much Arabian

In an inherently negative expression:

Wat sil men dêr folle fan sizze?

what shall one there much about say

What can I say?

As a positive polarity item, folle is restricted nowadays to a few idiomatized expressions:

folle lok en seine

much happiness and blessing

happy new-year

extra

Effects in word formation

It is striking that folle hardly ever occurs as the first part of a compound (in contrast to Dutch veel). Hoekstra (2010) explains this fact by its being a negative polarity item. According to him, if a part of a word is negatively polar, it must find a trigger (morphological negation) within the word, which is not possible. The Frisian dictionary gives no more than three entries with folle-: follentiids often, follerhanne all kinds of and follerlei multifarious. These words are not very frequent in their use. Instead of folle-, its comparative form mear is often used, as in meartalich multilingual or mearkoppich many-headed. For the translation of Dutch veelalusually, the superlative form meast is taken, resulting in meastal or almeast.

Since folle cannot be used in the meaning of much in affirmative contexts, Frisian has to look for the alternative forms. The one that is mostly chosen is the NP in soad a lot:

*Der wiene folle minsken op 'e begraffenis

there were much people at the funeral

There were a lot of people at the funeral

Der wiene in soad minsken op 'e begraffenis

there were a lot people at the funeral

There were a lot of people at the funeral

Another equivalent for in soad is gâns:

Yn Grins wenje gâns studinten

in Groningen live many students

Many students live in Groningen

Gâns is a positive polarity item; it cannot occur in negative contexts, in contrast to in soad which may be used everywhere:

Hy hat gâns boeken

he has many books

He has many books

*Hy hat net gâns boeken

he has not many books

He does not have many books

Hy hat in soad boeken

he has a lot books

He has a lot of books

Hy hat net in soad boeken

he has not a lot books

He does not have lots of books

A further difference with in soad is that gâns is absolute. Hence, it is impossible to combine it with a relativizing adverb like navenant relatively:

a.	*Hy hat navenant gâns boeken
	Hy has relatively many books

b.	Hy hat navenant in soad boeken

Quite on the opposite side, gâns is rather emphatic. Therefore, in the following exclamative example it cannot combine with the modal particle mar, which also stresses the truth of the statement:

Do hast mar in soad / *gâns boeken!

What a lot of books do you have!

extra

Literature

An extensive study concerning the word gâns is Hoekstra (2011). It contains a short overview of the Frisian quantifier system, and more in particular, it compares gâns with in soad and frijwat, both meaning much/many.

[+]Few/little

What we find in the semantic field of much/many, is more or less the mirror image of what we see in the field of little/few. Here the one-word item min is even more restricted than folle. It may neither occur in a positive nor in a negative context:

*Der wiene min minsken

There were few people

*Der wiene net min minsken

There were not few people

Min only exists in combination with the adjunct te too (see Hoekstra (2000:127)):

Der wiene te min minsken

There were too few people

The common alternative for min is the expression net folle not much/many few, hence the negation of the opposite meaning. The other alternative is the NP in bytsje a bit-DIM few/little. So, few people might be translated into Frisian as net folle minsken or as in bytsje minsken.

In definite contexts, the article in a of in bytsje is replaced by the definite neuter article it:

It bytsje minsken, dat hjoed kaam is

the few people that today came is

The few people that came today

Note that the quantifier acts as the head of the subject, hence the singular finite verb is in the relative clause. In contrast to Dutch, Frisian in bytsje few can be used in combination with a plural: in bytsje minsken few people (cf. Dutch *een beetje mensen). However, it appears nowadays that head role may change. For example, see this quote from the internet:

It is ien fan de bytsje skriuwers dy't it geef Frysk noch út 'e pinne kriget

it is one of the writers who the good Frisian still out the pencil gets

He/she is one of the few writers that still uses good Frisian

Here we see that the neuter singular article it is replaced by de, which must have occurred under the influence of the plural noun skriuwer-s writer-PL writers. Bytsje is not unique in this respect. We see the same phenomenon with the quantifiers in pear a couple few and in (stik)mannich a (piece)many few, which contain the neuter nouns (it) pear and (it) mannich. Nevertheless, a phrase like de pear/stikmannich boeken the few books is quite normal.

extra

Min in compounding

Min also occurs in compound words like minachtsje to despise (lit. to consider little), minmachtich not numerous, not in great numbers and minmânsk not strong (see Hoekstra (1990)). For more details about the use of min see in the Frisian syntax irregular.

[+]Particular aspects of some other individual quantifiers

There are a few idiosyncratics with some quantifiers, which are listed below:

al/alle is only counted as a quantifier if it expresses a quantification, like in the examples below:

al syn wurk

all his work

alle wetter

all.INFL water

all the water

alle minsken

all.INFL people.PL

all the people

In other cases, it is more of an indefinite pronoun. In this use, it is usually replaced by the form alles everything:

Al/alles wat er die, mislearre

everything what he did failed

everything he did failed

Ien can be combined with al in the phrase ien en al, which denotes a totality:

It is ien en al blommen

it is one and all flowers

it is covered all over with flowers

The same meaning is expressed by the construction ien ..., allegear ... one ..., all/alltogether ...:

It is ien bloed, allegear bloed

it is one blood, all blood

There was blood everywhere

It is dêr ien blommen, allegear blommen

it is there one flowers, all flowers

It is a sea of flowers over there

Note that ien one, which normally selects singular count nouns, combines here with a singular mass noun and a plural noun.

extra

Alle all can be combined with a numeral, so that it forms a new word: allebeide both of them, allefjouwer all four of them. When alle is used as a floating quantifier, the suppletive form allegearre is obligatorily:

De famkes hiene allegearre/*alle in strik yn it hier

the girls had all a ribbon in the hair

All the girls had a ribbon in their hair

More about this subject can be found in Hoekstra (1988).

According to Hoekstra (1991) the quantifiers elk(e) each and al(le) all basically have the same semantics of a universal quantifier. However, with alle, one quantified entities as members of a group as a whole, where distributive elk focusses more on the individual members:

a.	Hoefolle fûgels lizze aaien?
	how.many birds lay eggs
	How many birds lay eggs?

a.'	Alle fûgels lizze aaien
	all birds lay eggs
	All birds lay eggs

b.	Hokker fûgels lizze aaien?
	which birds lay eggs
	Which birds lay eggs?

b.'	Elke fûgel leit aaien
	each bird lays eggs
	Each bird lays eggs

There is a difference between Dutch and Frisian in the use of alle and elk. In principle, both can be used in sentences like the following (example (a) illustrates the Dutch language, (b) represents Frisian:

a.	Op alle schoteltjes lag een gebakje (Dutch)
	All the plates had a pastry on it

a.'	Op elk schoteltje lag een gebakje (Dutch)
	Each plate had a pastry on it

b.	Op alle pântsjes lei in taartsje
	All the plates had a pastry on it

b.'	Op elk pântsje lei in taartsje
	Each/every plate had a pastry on it

However, Dutch has a preference for elk, where in Frisian alle is preferred. This is particularly evident in fixed phrases. Again, example (a) illustrates Dutch and (b) is the Frisian usage:

Elke dag, elke zondag, elke week en elk jaar (Dutch)

Every day, every sunday, every week and every year

Alle dagen, alle sneinen, alle wiken en alle jierren

Every day, every sunday, every week and every year

Other contrastive examples are given below:

iedere keer (Dutch)

each time

alle kearen

every time

in ieder opzicht (Dutch)

in all respects

yn alle dingen

in all things

Besides elk/elts/elkenien there is the form elkmis (Hoekstra (1987)). As elk/elts it has a distributive function. The difference is, that elkmis can only be used as a floating quantifier:

Jimme krijge elkmis trije apels

You each get three apples

Hja fertsjinnen elkmis in tsientsje

They each earned ten euros

Elkmis is mainly restricted to the written language.

The Frisian wordgroup elk foar oar one by one is mostly used as an indefinite pronoun:

Elk foar oar wol de earste wêze

each for other will the first be

One by one, they all want to be the first

Elk foar oar brocht syn stim út

each for other brought his vote out

One by one, they all voted

Sometimes elk foar oar can also be used as an indefinite quantifier (see also Hoekstra (1987)):

Hja wisten elk foar oar wol in sterk stik oer him te fertellen

they knew each for other well a strong piece about him to tell

One by one, they all knew a tall story to tell about him

Elk foar oar wiene de partijen wakkere wiis mei de nije boargemaster

each for other were the parties very glad with the new mayer

One by one, they were all very pleased with the new mayer

As can be seen from the examples above, elk foar oar does not mean exactly the same as elkenien everybody, even though the semantics is quite similar. The difference is that elkenien covers the group of persons referred to as a whole, while elk foar oar refers to each individual in the group, in other words, it has a clear distributive meaning.

Wat some is counted as a quantifier if it denotes an amount and is used prenominally:

Ik ha noch wol wat spikers

I have still certainly some nails

I still have some nails

When wat some is used independently it is counted as an indefinite article, for instance in:

Hy hat wat fûn

he has what found

He found something

extra

More about the syntactic aspects of quantifiers can be found in the part on the Frisian syntax:

References

Dyk, Siebren2011The morphology of Frisian nominal ellipsis
Hoeksema, Jack2012Bij de vleet: een kwantor op afstandTABU40 (3-4)153-165
Hoekstra, Eric2010Oer folle en 'weinich' yn it Nijfrysk en it MidfryskIt beaken1/2 (72)55-68
Hoekstra, Jarich1987elk, elkenien, elkmisFriesch Dagblad08-08Taalsnipels 45
Hoekstra, Jarich1987Elk foar oarFriesch Dagblad09-05Taalsnipels 32
Hoekstra, Jarich1988Swalkjende telwurdenFriesch Dagblad30-07Taalsnipels 80
Hoekstra, Jarich1990Jild genôchFriesch Dagblad29-09Taalsnipels 161
Hoekstra, Jarich1990Te min / te weinigFriesch Dagblad08-12Taalsnipels 167
Hoekstra, Jarich1991Yn alle gefallenFriesch Dagblad29-06Taalsnipels 191
Hoekstra, Jarich1992In soad, in bytsjeFriesch Dagblad25-04Taalsnipels 222
Hoekstra, Jarich2000The West Frisian quantifier system and the 'mass only' puzzleLinguistics in the Netherlands 200017119-131
Hoekstra, Jarich2000The West Frisian quantifier system and the 'mass only' puzzleLinguistics in the Netherlands 200017119-131
Hoekstra, Jarich2011In bytsje oer gâns. In lytse bydrage ta de stúdzje fan it Fryske kwantifisearderssysteemIt Beaken73103-128
Hoekstra, Jarich2014By de bare bult en oare distributive kwantifisearjende ferhâldingswurdkloften yn it FryskIt Beaken76 (4)261-285
Popkema, Jan2006Grammatica FriesUtrecht/ LjouwertUitgeverij Het Spectrum BV Prisma Woordenboeken en Taaluitgaven/ Fryske Akademy

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About this article

Author(s): Siebren Dyk, Joke Weening

Category: Frisian Morphology

Keywords: quantifiermass nouncount nounnominal ellipsis

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Siebren Dyk	December 2015

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