How many is "several"?
In Peter Robinson's latest book, All The Colors Of Darkness, Banks is in an apartment looking around.
On a small media storage unit beside the sound system was a mix of books—mostly architecture and interior design—several DVDs ranging from recent cinema hits like Atonement and La Vie en Rose to classics by Truffaut, Kurosawa, Antonioni and Bergman along with numerous opera boxed sets.I find that too many to be 'several'. It's six at minimum, and the construction "hits like" implies more than one or two unnamed ones, just like "classics by..." implies more than one each.
Is that just me? Or does "several" work for ten or twelve for you?
(I also find the construction odd. Even allowing for no comma mixed with the em-dash, the coordination seems odd. There should be an "and" in there somewhere, shouldn't there?)
Labels: language
2 Comments:
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At 9:49 PM, October 04, 2009
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 7:56 AM, October 05, 2009
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->He-he-he.
I have a long-time friend with whom I used to have good-natured arguments about "a few" and "several". I think she'd agree with your sense of the latter. I give it more flexibility, allowing "a few" to overlap "several".
To me, even 3 or 4 can be "several", if I feel like saying it that way. On the high end, I'm not sure... certainly "several" can go up to at least "a dozen", and maybe more.
I figure it's meant to be vague.
I'll send the URL to my friend, and see if she wants to comment.
"A few" and "several" can overlap for me, as can "a few" and "a couple". But "several" just can't go into double digits, and even close to that (8,9) is too many.
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