one or more

navi

unread,

Oct 14, 2012, 10:47:19 PM10/14/12

to

1-ONE OR MORE of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
2-SOME of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
3-ANY NUMBER of my classmates might be at the party tonight.

Does "1" imply "a small number"?
Does "3" imply "a large number"?

Which sentence would one use if one had no idea how many of his or her classmates might be at the party...

Something which would mean:
4-ONE OR SOME OR ALL OF MY CLASSMATES might be at the party tonight.

I think "4" itself is the only viable candidate.
Gratefully,
Navi.

Harrison Hill

unread,

Oct 15, 2012, 2:53:30 AM10/15/12

to

On 15 Oct, 03:47, navi <lorca1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 1-ONE OR MORE of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
> 2-SOME of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
> 3-ANY NUMBER of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
>
> Does "1" imply "a small number"?

Yes, otherwise you'd say "100 or more..."

> Does "3" imply "a large number"?

Yes. "Any number" = "too many to count".

> Which sentence would one use if one had no idea how many of his or her classmates might be at the party...

3

> Something which would mean:
> 4-ONE OR SOME OR ALL OF MY CLASSMATES might be at the party tonight.

That is good. Or you might say: "I have no idea how many of my
classmates will turn up for the party tonight".

Guy Barry

unread,

Oct 15, 2012, 2:59:47 AM10/15/12

to

"navi" wrote in message
news:ab1664e6-bea7-4b60...@googlegroups.com...

> 1-ONE OR MORE of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
> 2-SOME of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
> 3-ANY NUMBER of my classmates might be at the party tonight.

> Does "1" imply "a small number"?
> Does "3" imply "a large number"?

No, in both cases.

> Which sentence would one use if one had no idea how many of his or her
> classmates might be at the party...

> Something which would mean:
> 4-ONE OR SOME OR ALL OF MY CLASSMATES might be at the party tonight.

Any of them, though (2) is the most straightforward.

--
Guy Barry

Message has been deleted

Evan Kirshenbaum

unread,

Oct 15, 2012, 12:35:13 PM10/15/12

to

Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> writes:

> In message <ea065971-7c8a-47c2...@s12g2000vbw.googlegroups.com>

> Harrison Hill <harrison...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 15 Oct, 03:47, navi <lorca1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> 1-ONE OR MORE of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
>>> 2-SOME of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
>>> 3-ANY NUMBER of my classmates might be at the party tonight.
>>>
>>> Does "1" imply "a small number"?
>
>> Yes, otherwise you'd say "100 or more..."
>
>>> Does "3" imply "a large number"?
>
>> Yes. "Any number" = "too many to count".
>

> I disagree. I think ANy number implies any number; from zero on up. To
> me, the 3rd implies you have no idea how many, if any, of your
> classmates might be there.

To me, "any number" implies any number in much the same way that
"valuable", implies any value, from nothing on up. There's a definite
implication that for any reasonable number you think of, I wouldn't be
surprised if it was more than that. It's not necessarily "too many to
count", or even a very large number ("any number of reasons" might
turn out to be, say, four or five) but it's saliently larger than you
would expect.

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
Still with HP Labs |The law of supply and demand tells us
SF Bay Area (1982-) |that when the price of something is
Chicago (1964-1982) |artificially set below market level,
|there will soon be none of that thing
evan.kir...@gmail.com |left--as you may have noticed the
|last time you tried to buy something
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |for nothing.
| P.J. O'Rourke

Guy Barry

unread,

Oct 15, 2012, 12:49:22 PM10/15/12

to

"Evan Kirshenbaum" wrote in message news:ehkzit...@gmail.com...

> To me, "any number" implies any number in much the same way that
> "valuable", implies any value, from nothing on up. There's a definite
> implication that for any reasonable number you think of, I wouldn't be
> surprised if it was more than that.

I think there's a difference depending on how you stress "any number".

ANY number of my classmates = "an unspecified number of my classmates"
(could be low or high)
any NUMBER of my classmates = "more of my classmates than you might expect"

--
Guy Barry

Eric Walker

unread,

Oct 16, 2012, 6:24:26 AM10/16/12

to

Each of 1 - 3 covers the cases of zero to all. Moreover, the conditional
"might" compounds that sense of uncertainty.

If it is important to stress the potential range of the variability, the
best course is to not try to be cryptic but say it overtly:

Of my classmates, anywhere from none to all might be at the party
tonight.

--
Cordially,
Eric Walker