Consistently throughout my life I continue to ask the question of how much is a couple? Now, obviously the “correct” answer is two but it’s not quite that simple.
There exists in the English language a distinctive difference between definition and use when it comes to many words and, in this vein, it is very common to hear some say “a couple of…” when referring to a group numbering more than two.
I do not think this is a flaw in English, nor is it an issue that stems from its modern speakers. In fact, I posit that, much like the discourse around the “non-definitional” use of “literally”, that this irregularity gives English a certain natural flexibility that is necessary within modern life.
I do not wish, however, to delve too deep into the analysis of this phenomenon, instead focusing on the relative barriers of the phenomenon that occurs within the minds of each person.
There are many words in this field of vague determiners, I’m sure there exist many I cannot think of at the moment. Nonetheless, I wish to approach these words in a way that asks for the maximum and minimum of that which one would reasonably expect and permit them to refer.
- “A couple of…”
- While a “couple” is definitionally two, I am under the belief that it can be used to refer to any low instance plurality. I am indifferent to the maximum “a couple of…” could refer to, however, if I were forced to place a range, I would choose (1 < x < 4)
- “A few”
- I assert that a “few” would follow the range of (3 < x < 7)
- “Several”
- I think “several” could pass for a range of (4 < x < 14)
- “A Handful”
- I think “a handful” represents (5 < x < 15)
- “Some”
- While many assert that “some” represents a finite range of expression, I would personally assert that it is entirely relative to the context of the noun being referred to by the determiner. I think some could be 4 as easily as it could be 423. It is all dependent on the relative societal weight of the noun in question.
- “A bunch”
- A “bunch” I believe is a term similar to a “handful”, used to represent a small yet compelling collection. I don’t, however believe this term to refer to any particular amount less than 3 or four.
- “Many”
- I think many isn’t determinate of a finite number, but instead serves as an abstract rhetorical term to reflect “substantially enough to matter within the context”
- “A lot”
- Similarly to “some”, I believe a “lot” or even a “ton” to represent a relative quantity that is substantially more than simply “some”.
I don’t really have anywhere to go with all this, so I’ll just end things here :P