- Dutch
- Frisian
- Afrikaans
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.
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:
| 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 |
Compare this with a quantifier that obligatorily combines with a plural noun:
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:
In contrast, a quantifier like beide both is only allowed with a count noun:
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.
Quantifiers can consist of one word, or be made up by a wordgroup. The first table shows the quantifiers that consist of one word:
| 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 |
| 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 |
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:
| Form | Translation |
| in snies | 20 (almost exclusively said of eggs) |
| in dozyn | a dozen, 12 |
| in gros | a gross, 144 |
Some quantifiers may also be seen as indefinite pronouns. Examples are neat nothing, gjin none and alles everything. See Indefinite pronouns.
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:
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:
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.
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)).
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:
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:
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.
Most of this section is based on Dyk (2011).
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:
Example 12
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:
Example 13
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:
Example 14
Sûnder folle wurden naam se ôfskie without many words took she leave Without many words she took leave - In the complement of dubitative verbs:
Example 15
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:
Example 16
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 | ||||||||||||||
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:
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:
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:
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! |
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
In other cases, it is more of an indefinite pronoun. In this use, it is usually replaced by the form alles everything:Example 27
al syn wurk all his work all his work alle wetter all.INFL water all the water alle minsken all.INFL people.PL all the people Ien can be combined with al in the phrase ien en al, which denotes a totality:Example 28
Al/alles wat er die, mislearre everything what he did failed everything he did failed The same meaning is expressed by the construction ien ..., allegear ... one ..., all/alltogether ...:Example 29
It is ien en al blommen it is one and all flowers it is covered all over with flowers Example 30
Note that ien one, which normally selects singular count nouns, combines here with a singular mass noun and a plural noun.
[hide extra information]xAlle 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:
Example 31
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:
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:Example 32
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:Example 33
Other contrastive examples are given below:Example 34
Example 35
Example 36
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:
Elkmis is mainly restricted to the written language.Example 37
Jimme krijge elkmis trije apels You each get three apples Hja fertsjinnen elkmis in tsientsje They each earned ten euros The Frisian wordgroup elk foar oar one by one is mostly used as an indefinite pronoun:
Sometimes elk foar oar can also be used as an indefinite quantifier (see also Hoekstra (1987)):Example 38
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.Example 39
- Wat
some is
counted as a quantifier if it denotes an amount and is used
prenominally:
When wat some is used independently it is counted as an indefinite article, for instance in:Example 40
Ik ha noch wol wat spikers I have still certainly some nails I still have some nails Example 41
Hy hat wat fûn he has what found He found something
More about the syntactic aspects of quantifiers can be found in the part on the Frisian syntax:
- 2011The morphology of Frisian nominal ellipsis
- 2012Bij de vleet: een kwantor op afstandTABU40 (3-4)153-165
- 2010Oer folle en 'weinich' yn it Nijfrysk en it MidfryskIt beaken1/2 (72)55-68
- 1987elk, elkenien, elkmisFriesch Dagblad08-08Taalsnipels 45
- 1987Elk foar oarFriesch Dagblad09-05Taalsnipels 32
- 1988Swalkjende telwurdenFriesch Dagblad30-07Taalsnipels 80
- 1990Jild genôchFriesch Dagblad29-09Taalsnipels 161
- 1990Te min / te weinigFriesch Dagblad08-12Taalsnipels 167
- 1991Yn alle gefallenFriesch Dagblad29-06Taalsnipels 191
- 1992In soad, in bytsjeFriesch Dagblad25-04Taalsnipels 222
- 2000The West Frisian quantifier system and the 'mass only' puzzleLinguistics in the Netherlands 200017119-131
- 2000The West Frisian quantifier system and the 'mass only' puzzleLinguistics in the Netherlands 200017119-131
- 2011In bytsje oer gâns. In lytse bydrage ta de stúdzje fan it Fryske kwantifisearderssysteemIt Beaken73103-128
- 2014By de bare bult en oare distributive kwantifisearjende ferhâldingswurdkloften yn it FryskIt Beaken76 (4)261-285
- 2006Grammatica FriesUtrecht/ LjouwertUitgeverij Het Spectrum BV Prisma Woordenboeken en Taaluitgaven/ Fryske Akademy
