Stability of Specific Meanings of Certain Terms on the None-All Scale of Amount

Abstract

The normative meaning and the variance of meaning of each of thirteen terms of number or amount were investigated and compared with similar data obtained by the senior author about 25 years earlier. Although this time has elapsed and although new subjects have been used and the section of the country from which most of them came was different, normative meanings found in the forties were strikingly similar to those of the seventies. The same is also true, with two exceptions, for the degree of variance or ambiguity. However, the variance or ambiguity of these terms of number or amount should warn writers and speakers to use such terms with caution, particularly where more precise quantitative descriptions can be given.