From the LINGUIST List: Vol-14-874.
http://linguistlist.org/
> Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 11:50:22 +0000
> From: Erich Round <erich@unimelb.edu.au>
> Subject: meanings of 'some'
>
> Dear all,
>
> The meaning of 'some' has of course been an object of study for a very
> long time, but with a certain bias towards only some of its meanings.
>
> I am currently researching the meanings of English 'some' which are
> found in spontaneous conversation, in phrases like 'some party', 'some
> people' I would greatly appreciate it you could alert me to any
> sources which cover any of the following meanings (whether as their
> main topic or in passing).
>
> Please bear with me and tolerate the short examples I give here of
> each 'meaning' 'I'm aware' they fail to rule out alternate
> interpretations, and that indications of prosodic realisation are
> given haphazardly, but hopefully they serve their purpose:
>
> a. The 'not-sure-which' meaning (can be strengthened by or other):
> e.g. He's gone out with some friend (or other).
>
> b. The 'not-sure-what' meaning (can be strengthened by or
> something/some+WH-):
> e.g. He's gone to some party (or something/somewhere).
>
> c. The 'not-sure-if-this-word's-right' meaning (again, with 'or something')
> e.g. They were talking about some nuclear fishin' (or something).
>
> d. The 'you-probably-know-this-person-better-than-me':
> e.g. There was some John Jensen here looking for you.
>
> e. The 'I-don't-know-much-about-the-referent' meaning:
> e.g. I was waiting and then some guy came in and started yelling.
> e.g. Yeah, I got to talk to some manager there about it.
>
> f. The disparaging/dismissive meaning:
>
> e.g. Oh there's some pizza restaurant on the corner, but we don't
> want to go there.
> e.g. Are we going sit here and be dictated to by some bureaucrat?
>
> g. Where some, usually accented, can be paraphrased as certain:
> e.g. ...with a certain bias towards only _some_ of its meanings
>
> h. The 'remarkable' meaning, either positive or negative:
> e.g. That was _some_ party you had last night!
> e.g. That was _some_ stupid question you asked there!
> also, in the plural (the singular uses 'one':
> e.g. Those are some _crazy_ cousins you have!
>
> i. The vague-number meaning
> e.g. It was some 16 years ago that...
>
> plus any more you might think of or know of, or any comments you may
> have.
>
> Many thanks,
> Erich Round (University of Melbourne, Australia),
> erich@unimelb.edu.au
The comment I may have is that all of the 'uses' ('meanings'?) that you have
selected would, for Grice, correspond to the existential quantifier. At least
that's his take in his 1967 'Logic and Conversation':
"It is a commonplace of philosophical logic that there are, or
appear to be, divergences in meaning between [...] (Ex) [...] and
'some'."
(Grice, Studies in the Way of Words, p. 22).
but of course there are _not_, as he goes on to say. An interesting source by
an "A-philosopher" that Grice is attacking in this context is Oxford's once
Vice-Chancellor G. J. Warnock, 'Metaphysics in Logic' (_Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society_, vol. 51 -- shortened version repr. in A. Flew, Essays
in Conceptual Analysis. London: Macmillan) -- which is a polemic with Quine
_against_ the identification of (Ex) with 'some'. (As it happened, Warnock
wrote the entry for Grice in The Dictionary of National Biography).
Cheers,
JL
J L Speranza
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