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Quite
This is another insomnia post, but its origins go back to 1974, when I first took classes in German. Then, I noticed that the word "ganz" sometimes meant "fairly" or "moderately", and sometimes "very" or "absolutely." It's usually translated as "quite," which has the same characteristic. I thought that an interesting coincidence at the time.
Much more recently, learning Japanese, I found that "kekkou" (けっこう) shared similar characteristics. Perhaps it's a general feature of terms of degree that they're liable to semantic drift, and hence ambiguity.
But how much ambiguity? It occurs to me that there are very strong rules of thumb in place for determining the meaning of "quite." (I speak here of British English - I believe it's a bit different in America.)
In short, moderate adjectives/adverbs are made even more moderate by "quite," while intense adjectives/adverbs are intensified by it. Hence, in "She is quite pretty"="She is fairly pretty," but "She is quite beautiful"="She is very beautiful." You can try this with other pairs: "quite useful" vs. "quite essential," "quite annoyed" vs. "quite apoplectic," etc.
There are of course some borderline cases that have to be sorted out by context. "She was quite insistent," for example.
But then I noticed that "quite" has not two, but four degrees of intensity.
1: "Moderately": It is quite hot today.
2: "Above a certain threshold": He is quite tall.
3: "Extremely": This food is quite delicious."
4: "Absolute": He is quite dead.
Last thought: I wonder how much the British addiction to understatement is involved in this proliferation. For example, if I say of a maths problem, "It's quite tricky," the net meaning is that it's a very difficult problem. So, you might think I was using "quite" in sense 3 above. However, in my head I'd be using it in sense 1, but with a suitable dose of understatement. Likewise, "He is quite tall" might once have meant "He is (only) moderately tall," but a few inches have been added to allow for understatement.
I think that's all I have to say on the matter.
Much more recently, learning Japanese, I found that "kekkou" (けっこう) shared similar characteristics. Perhaps it's a general feature of terms of degree that they're liable to semantic drift, and hence ambiguity.
But how much ambiguity? It occurs to me that there are very strong rules of thumb in place for determining the meaning of "quite." (I speak here of British English - I believe it's a bit different in America.)
In short, moderate adjectives/adverbs are made even more moderate by "quite," while intense adjectives/adverbs are intensified by it. Hence, in "She is quite pretty"="She is fairly pretty," but "She is quite beautiful"="She is very beautiful." You can try this with other pairs: "quite useful" vs. "quite essential," "quite annoyed" vs. "quite apoplectic," etc.
There are of course some borderline cases that have to be sorted out by context. "She was quite insistent," for example.
But then I noticed that "quite" has not two, but four degrees of intensity.
1: "Moderately": It is quite hot today.
2: "Above a certain threshold": He is quite tall.
3: "Extremely": This food is quite delicious."
4: "Absolute": He is quite dead.
Last thought: I wonder how much the British addiction to understatement is involved in this proliferation. For example, if I say of a maths problem, "It's quite tricky," the net meaning is that it's a very difficult problem. So, you might think I was using "quite" in sense 3 above. However, in my head I'd be using it in sense 1, but with a suitable dose of understatement. Likewise, "He is quite tall" might once have meant "He is (only) moderately tall," but a few inches have been added to allow for understatement.
I think that's all I have to say on the matter.
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I think we actually might sort out the borderline cases by emphasis? If it falls on quite, it means "absolutely", if on whatever the normal stress-syllable is in the adjective, it means "moderately": She was QUITE insistent vs She was quite InSIStent.
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