The English-Learning and Languages Review Æ HOMEPAGE
A critical examination of the account of
some and
any
in
by
Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy
(The false trail of
grammatical categorising 5)
Amorey
Gethin
Contents
Failure to make the
correct distinctions in meaning
The false
association of negative with any and
affirmative with some
Misleading
conversion of any into a grammatical
function
Failure
to make the correct distinctions in meaning
When it comes to some
and any, I’m afraid the Cambridge
Grammar of English (CGE) falls into error as much as anybody. On page 365 the
authors write:
Some and any: strong versus weak forms
Some and any each have strong forms, which are stressed, and weak unstressed
forms. The weak form of some is pronounced /səm/.
The weak forms indicate an
indefinite quantity of something:
Would you like some cheese?
Are there any messages on the
answerphone?
Straight away we find the mistake of treating some and any as if they have the same meaning, with the implication that the
only difference is between some abstract grammatical functions. Some does indeed indicate indefinite
quantity. But any has a totally
different meaning. (See also the first section of www.lingua.org.uk/saquirk.htm
.)
The CGE continues:
The strong forms have different meanings. The strong form of
some most typically means ‘a certain’
or ‘a particular’ when used with singular count nouns:
Some child was crying behind me throughout the whole flight and I never slept.
Strong form some
contrasts with others, all or enough when used with plural count nouns
and with non-count nouns:
[talking of student grants]
Some students get substantial amounts and others get nothing.
The CGE is doubly muddled here.
Firstly, the distinction between stressed some with singular count nouns and stressed some with plural count nouns and
non-count nouns is false. The sort of some illustrated by the “Some child…” example above is used with plural count nouns and non-count nouns as well as
singular count nouns.
Some idiots have
left their cars blocking the exit, so nobody can get out.
“Why do you have to
collect your visa in person?” “Oh, some
bureaucratic nonsense.”
This use of some
is a rather special one. The CGE has failed to note any of its essential
characteristics.
(1) The stress pattern is quite different from that in
other uses of some. The noun is
always stressed even more heavily than the some.
There are varying degrees of stress of some,
not just two. Note how, in contrast to “Some child…”, in “Some students...” the
some is stressed more heavily
relative to the noun.
(2) This use of some often expresses some degree of anger,
annoyance or contempt, or it expresses the idea of sort of, which the CGE itself gives an example of on page 367. (Is there some kind of recorded delivery I could send it
by?)
(3)
As I have often emphasized elsewhere, it is impossible to describe the meaning of a word properly
with other words. But in this case I feel the CGE has
clearly got it the wrong way round. Some used
in this way surely expresses the indefinite, the vague, rather than ‘a certain’ or
‘particular’? The frequent addition of the phrase or other confirms this, as in one of the CGE’s own examples on page
355: He was driving along up
there somewhere, to some village or
other……
Secondly, the idea
that stressed some and any have different meanings from unstressed
some and any is a fundamental misunderstanding. Apart from the special use I
have just described, stress makes no difference to the meanings of either some or any. Like most words, though, they are stressed or unstressed
according to the context and the precise meaning required. The CGE itself
provides a good example of this (p.366).
We’ve got some bread but not enough
for three people.
Where one puts the
stress in this sentence depends on the utterance to which it is a response. If
this was a question such as Do we have
anything to eat? the stress would be on bread,
and some would be unstressed /səm/ - some bread;
but if the question was Have you got any
bread?, the stress would be on some
/sʌm/ - some bread. In the
same way, if one is commenting on a strike by a railway trade union, one would
say, for instance,
I’m
sure some of the drivers won’t
accept the agreement made with the employers.
if the union consists
exclusively of drivers. On the other hand, if the union is a general one for
all types of railway worker, one would say
I’m
sure some of the drivers won’t
accept the agreement made with the employers.
The CGE continues:
Strong form any is
used most typically with singular count nouns and with non-count nouns to mean ‘it
does not matter which’:
If you have the warranty, any authorised dealer can get it
repaired for you.
Any
fruit juice
will make you sick if you drink enough of it.
But once again, the position of the stress depends on the context. If one’s
interlocutor has doubted the competence of authorised dealers, the stress will
be on any; but on authorised
dealer if one’s interlocutor is despairing of getting it repaired anywhere.
Similarly, the stress will not be on any
in a sentence such as:
You can drink as much water as you like, but any fruit juice will make you sick if you
drink enough of it.
Further examples:
[Commenting on listening to a talk in a foreign language]:
I didn’t understand any
jokes / any jokes.
I didn’t understand some of the jokes / some of
the jokes.
(Notice how the meanings of these last two sentences are
completely different.)
I have a nasty feeling something’s not right / something’s not
right.
I don’t need money,
but I’d welcome any advice you could
give me.
Paola, I’d enjoy any meal you cooked for me.
Furthermore, stressed some does not just contrast with others, all or enough. It can contrast with countless words, or with no words at
all.
Some campaigners want to reduce
the time limit for abortion to twenty weeks, some want
to keep it where it is now, and of course some
lobbyists want abortion banned altogether.
And finally, the CGE
fails to note that some in the phrase
some of is always pronounced /sʌm/, even in contexts where some would be unstressed /səm/ if it was used without of – and in such contexts the some of some of is not heavily stressed.
“D’you
still have some (/sʌm/) of that nice white wine?” “I’m afraid not. But there’s some (/sʌm/) of the red left / some (/səm/) red left.”
The false association of negative with any and affirmative with some
The CGE makes the same
old basic mistakes as practically everybody else (pp.366-67).
Weak form some and any and clause types
The use of the weak
forms of some and any depends on whether the clause is
declarative or interrogative, and whether it is affirmative or negative:
There’s some milk in the fridge.
(There’s any milk in
the fridge.)
There isn’t
any
milk in the fridge.
(There
isn’t some milk in the fridge.)
Is there any milk in the fridge?
Is there some milk in the fridge?
Isn’t there any milk in the fridge?
Isn’t there some milk in the fridge?
In declarative clauses, some occurs with affirmatives but does
not occur with negatives. Any occurs
with negatives but does not usually occur with affirmatives:
I’ve got some nice French cheese for us.
(I’ve
got any nice French cheese for us.)
A:
I’d like some apple juice please.
B:
You’d like some apple juice.
A:
Yes.
B:
Right.
(I’d
like any apple juice please.)
I don’t have any questions.
(I
don’t have some questions.)
[talking
about a recently typed document]
There aren’t any glaring errors. I mean Jamie’s read through it and he hasn’t seen any.
(There
aren’t some glaring errors. I mean Janie’s read through it and he hasn’t seen
some.)
To begin with, notice
how the CGE’s authors make the same mistake as practically all grammarians: to
demonstrate that one cannot use negatives with some or affirmatives with any,
they rely mainly on the verbs have
(or have got) and be for their examples. They seem unable
to imagine the almost infinite number of other possibilities, or the variety of
possibilities with even those particular verbs.
We
would enjoy any nice French cheese.
I’ll
gobble up any apple juice.
[Checking a list]
I
think I’ve got all the answers here, but I don’t have some of the questions.
Jamie
claims to have read the paper through carefully, and says there are no
mistakes, but I’m afraid he hasn’t spotted some truly glaring errors.
So some and its compounds are in fact often
used in negative declarative clauses:
Somebody
hasn’t signed.
The
doctor hasn’t seen somebody – he’s still sitting disconsolately in the waiting
room.
The
inspectors haven’t checked some of the farms in
Somebody
didn’t remember to turn the lights off last night.
Bill
hasn’t washed some of the glasses properly.
And any and its compounds are often used in
affirmative declarative clauses (note that the any-
words in the following examples could be stressed or unstressed):
Anything
would be better than sitting here waiting for something to happen.
I’m
so hungry I think I’ll be able to eat any muck they put in front of us.
Any
new book of his got glowing reviews.
I
hope I would always try to help anyone I saw in serious trouble.
They
always welcomed any of our friends as warmly as ourselves.
Misleading conversion of any into a grammatical function
Lower down on page 367
the CGE says:
Any
can occur in affirmative declarative clauses with an implied conditional
meaning and in subordinate conditional clauses:
[radio
weather forecast]
Any rain will clear by midday.
(if
there is any rain, it will clear by midday)
If anyone has any questions during the day, ask Sam.
(The CGE confusingly prints the any’s in bold here,
although it is talking about its ‘weak’, unstressed forms.)
Here we find an example of the frequent grammarian’s error of confusing the
meaning of a sentence with the meaning of a word, together with the distraction
of converting a word into a grammatical function. This is a classic case of
using a grammatical formula to justify, to produce, a particular word, a
particular meaning, when in reality what is happening is the reverse. The
combination of a particular set of meanings, together with the particular
meaning any, produces, in this case, an overall conditional
meaning. But a different combination will not:
Any member’s signature will authorise you to attend
the meeting.
As I have pointed out elsewhere, any
can be used in any sort of sentence so long as it makes sense (www.lingua.org.uk/sa.html
) Like other grammarians (see particularly www.lingua.org.uk/sahuddle.htm )
the CGE here is creating a separate new any,
a ‘conditional’ any, something that
does not in fact exist. It is not only a fantasy based on back-to-front
thinking. It is a very unhelpful fantasy. This is not the way native
English-speakers learn what any means
and how to use it. They do not learn any’s meaning
by scanning possible utterances and determining whether there is a conditional
idea that would permit them to use any;
they learn it by hearing the word many times in many different contexts. They
learn meanings, and logic tells them how those meanings can and cannot be
fitted together. Learners of English as a foreign language should be encouraged
to try as much as possible to learn in the same way.
30 April 2010; minor revision 17 May 2010;
partial revision 25 May 2010
revised layout 12 May 2010
The English-Learning and Languages Review Æ HOMEPAGE