The semantics of Greek adjective πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “polis, polli, poli” is of ultimate interest because of its polysemous nature that allows it to be interpreted either as a quantifier or an intensifier.

Our intention is to give a thorough semantic analysis of Greek poli taking into consideration all the possible syntactic constructions it engages in, so that it is viewed both as a quantifier and a modificational intensifier. To start with, we will attempt to draw a precise profile of Greek poli, with the help of Babiniotis (2002) and Stavropoulos (1995) .

Babiniotis (2002) describes the Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ as an adjective that refers to the one that exists in great quantity; to put it in Babiniotis’ words: “αυτος που υπάρχει σε μεγάλη ποσότητα” ( Babiniotis, 2002 : p. 1448).

Babiniotis gives specific examples such as those mentioned below:

(1) Efage poli zahari

He ate a lot of sugar

(2) Bgazi polla hrimata

He earns a lot of money

(3) Mazeutike polis kosmos

A lot of people came over

When poli in its neuter form, it combines with mass nouns and means “much, a lot of, lots, a good/great deal, a large quantity, plenty” ( Stavropoulos, 1995 : p. 724), as demonstrated in Stavropoulos’ examples mentioned below:

(4) den ehoume poli hrono

we haven’t much time

(5) pinete poli gala

do you drink much milk?

(6) pinome poli tsai

we drink lots of tea

Polis can also be combined with countable nouns, and in this case, it will mean “several, many” as in Stavropoulos’ examples mentioned below:

(7) polloi apo mas

several/many of us

(8) polles fores

several/many times

Babiniotis (2002) also mentions another meaning of polis: “αυτος που υπάρχει ή εμφανίζεται σε μεγάλο βαθμό, με μεγάλη ένταση” (ibid) which means the one that appears to be in a great degree or great intensity; this is shown in his examples mentioned below:

(9) Poli kako gia to tipota

much ado about nothing (Shakespear’s work)

(10) Kani poli fasaria

He makes a lot of noise

Babiniotis also talks about the neuter πολύ as the adverb that relates not only to great quantities “(ποσοτικό) σε μεγάλο ϐαϑμό” ( Babiniotis, 2002 : p. 1442) but also to a great degree as in his examples mentioned below:

(11) Tin agapo poli

I love her very much

(12) Ine poli eksipnos

He is very smart

Another interesting construction of poli- is when it appears as part of a compound, combined with a root. In Babiniotis’ (2002: p. 1443) examples of the neuter πολύ also appears as a prefix (συνθετικό) that describes “μεγάλη ποσoτητα, ένταση ή έκταση” as it shows in his examples:

(13) πολύ-ανθρωπος “populous, crowded”

(14) πολύ-μορφος “multiformed”

(15) πολύ-ασχολoς “[very] busy”

(16) πολύ-σημαντος “of many meanings”

πολύ also describes “επίταση της σημασίας του ϐ’ συνθετικού”; this means that it is used to intensify the meaning of the second part of a compound as given in Babiniotis’ examples below:

(17) πολυ-μιλώ “talk too much”

(18) πολύ-διαβάζω “read a lot”

(19) πολυ-τραβάω “pull too much”

(20) πολυ-δυστυχισμένος “very misfortunate”

The same Greek lexeme πολύ also describes “μετριασμό αυτού που δηλώνει το ϐ’ συνθετικό του ρήματος” which means the midigation or the moderation of what the second part of a compound like those below taken also from Babiniotis (2002) :

(21) δεν πολυ-καταλαβα “I didn’t understand well”

(22) δεν πολυ-ασχολούμαι με αυτά “I don’t bother much with such things”

Or it can also describe μεγάλη συχνότητα, that is a great frequency as in examples like those mentioned below:

(23) πολυ-τραγουδισμένος “much sung”

(24) πολυδιαβασμένος “well read”

It appears that we are dealing with a polysemous case.

Often polysemy interferes with the semantic analysis of such lexemes which they can only be given a specific semantic interpretation after we consider their morpho-syntactic position in the sentence. This is the case of Greek adjective πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “polis, polli, poli” as it appears in distinct morpho-syntactic environments that allow it to claim various semantic interpretations. We speculate that it expresses not only quantity as a quantificational operator but also degree modification and/or intensity as a modificational intensifier. In cases, it expresses quantity, πολύς, πολλή, πολύ functions as an adjective of great number or quantity (see Stafilidis, 2000 : p. 1209).

Stafilidis (2000) also translates it as an adjective, meaning not only of a great number but also of a great intensity or great duration (see Stafilidis, 2000 : p. 1209).

As we read the above examples taken from Babiniotis (2002) and Stavropoulos (1995) , we can’t help ourselves noticing the repetition of the same sounds. It is very important to draw the reader’s attention to the orthography of the 3 genders of this Greek adjective and specify that there is a kind of homophony that one might detect between the feminine and the neuter. However, the Greek orthography of the feminine πολλή “polli” shows us the feminine being spelled with a double λλ “ll” and the Greek letter ή “i” at the end of the word, which we will keep in our English transliteration to be able to differentiate it from the neuter πολύ “poli” which in Greek it is spelled with one λ “l” and the Greek letter ύ “i”. The choice of one or two l in the transliteration of the feminine and the neuter will allow us to judge which we refer to in our examples.

There is also the same pronunciation for polloi as in masculine singular πολλοί “poli” as in example πολλοί ανδρες, polloi andres—“many men, which means “many” but it is also pronounced as poli. Again, the Greek orthography makes it easy to identify the difference and to make it easy for our readers we will transliterate it as “polloi”.

For Greek native speakers this is also made apparent by the construction of the sentence, an adjective engages in.

Such discussion should not allow us to deviate from our original goal: the semantic analysis of Greek polis, polli, poli “many, much, a lot of, very”.

It appears that we are dealing with a polysemous case; according to Cruse (2006) a word is said to be polysemous when it “has more than one distinct, established sense” ( Cruse, 2006 : p. 133). Often polysemy interferes with the semantic analysis of such lexemes and they can only be given a specific semantic interpretation after we consider their syntactic position in the sentence. This is the case of Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ as it appears in distinct, syntactic environments that allow it to claim various semantic interpretations.

We speculate that such a Greek adjective expresses quantity, degree modification or intensity. When it expresses quantity, πολύς, πολλή, πολύ functions as an adjective of great number or quantity (see Stafilidis, 2000 : p. 1209). Stafilidis (2000) also mentions adjective polis meaning not only “of great number” but also “of great intensity” or “great duration” (cf. Stafilidis, 2000 : p. 1209).

Etymologically, all the examples with poli have the same root, coming from the neuter of the adjective πολύς, which can take different semantic interpretations according to the syntactic constructions it allows. Stamatakos (1999) explains that the adverb πολύ is derived from the neuter πολύ of the adjective πολύϛ, πολλή, πολύ and they share the same etymology with the ancient Greek πουλύϛ “poulis” and its neuter form πουλύ “pouli”.

Initially we will begin our discussion with the Greek example mentioned above in (28) I polli katanalosi tou krasiou blapti “the much consumption of wine is harmful”. Our analysis will be following Tsouhlaris (2011) .

In the analysis of our example (21) I polli katanalosi tou krasiou “the much consumption of wine” we will follow Tsouhlaris (2011) and her analysis of Greek QMods oliki “entire, whole” and meriki “partial” as demonstrated in her examples I oliki katastrofi tis polis itan anapofekti “the total destruction of the city was inevitable” and I merki katastrofi tis polis itan anapofekti “the partial destruction of the city was inevitable”. Because of their quantificational properties, Tsouhlaris views such adjectives as Quantificational-Modifiers or Q-Mods for short.

QMods are syntactic modifiers which take a semantic analysis that suits quantifiers, i.e., they favor operations over sets. “QMods are analyzed as ‘measure’ quantifiers of scalar semantics that appear in a syntactic position common to adjectival modifiers; semantically, they function as ‘total’ and ‘partial’ quantifiers which operate on proportional, homomorphic sets of degrees and amounts. The way to capture the relation between the degree and amount sets is by a homomorphism, i.e., the semantic ‘mapping’ between the two mereological sets of ‘city’ and ‘destruction’” ( Tsouhlaris, 2011 : p. 67).

Tsouhlaris explains as she investigates her default examples I oliki katastrofi tis polis, or I meriki katastrofi tis polis and their English counterparts: the total destruction of the city was inevitable or the partial destruction inflicted on the city was inevitable which also allow a similar semantic analysis.

The focus of this paper is another Greek quantifier poli “much, of great quantity” which we believe it can take a similar semantic analysis as the QMods described by Tsouhlaris (2011) .

Polis along with merikos and ligos belong to a particular class of Greek adjectives that semantically could be viewed as expressions of Proportionality in the sense of Tsouhlaris (2011) . QMods, maintain their quantificational properties even when they appear in syntactic positions common to adjectival modifiers.

We repeat our default example for polis: (28) I polli katanalosi tou krasiou “the much consumption of wine”, according to which, polis can be analyzed as a QMod. In this example, we are dealing with the feminine form of the adjective in its singular. Our default example (28) is repeated below:

(28) ή πολλλή κατανάλωση τού κρασιού ϐλάπτει

I + polli + katanalosi (Fem. SG. Nom.) tou krasiou blapti

“The much consumption of wine is harmful”

Polis is seen as a quantificational operator over mereological set relations, combining with a complex event nominal and its incremental theme participant. Polis combines with the deverbal noun katanalosi which etymologically hides a downward movement in its prefix kata-; kata- points to a sort of downward movement and combines with the noun analosi which literary means “spending”; analosi is derived from the verb analono meaning “to spend, to consume, to use up” ( Stavropoulos, 1995 : p. 51). Therefore, I katanalosi tou krasiou “the consumption of the wine” would already point to the possibility of a change in the quantity of the wine, even before it is consumed as it appears in its whole (quantity).

When katanalosi is combined with the QMod poli, poli operates on katanalosi and discloses the degree of katanalosi “consumption” as “much” or as “of a great quantity” that is being consumed. The katanalosis “consumption” is interpreted in association with its incremental theme which is the mass nominal it combines with, i.e., krasi “wine” (cf. Krifka (1992 , 1998) , Dowty (1991) , and Tsouhlaris (2011) ).

Greek mass nominal krasi “wine” is analyzed as a mereological entity x. We could speculate that krasi “wine” is contained in bottles which are seen as the individual units used to measure the wine. Let us assume that each bottle contains 400 grams of wine; then, each bottle is seen as the contribution to the possible consumed amount of wine so that “a great amount of wine is consumed”; for instance, if we have 5 bottles of wine that makes our total quantity 2000 grams of wine, then the total quantity of wine would be 2 kilograms in total.

When we talk about the polli katanalosi tou krasiou “the much consumption of wine”, and the amount of wine we have is 2 kilos, then the equivalent amount to polli katanalosi could be 1 kilo and 500 grams, more or less. Poli is proportional and can never be equivalent to a precise quantity as this is the quality of numbers only.

Our analysis involves proportional sets of degree of katanalosi and amount of wine in grams or in bottles of wine in such a way that these proportional sets can be identified in relation to each other, so that each degree of consumption corresponds to a “part” of the wine being consumed. Therefore, the QMod poli is exercised on each “part” of the wine consumed. The following diagram explains our thinking that is also in accordance with Tsouhlaris (2011) :

“(9) b. mΔ = λxλe.mc⭡ (x) (e’ before mid (e) or e’ before fin(e))”

m(x) (init(e))

The syntactic representation of I polli katanalosi tou krasiou “the much consumption of wine” follows Tsouhlaris’ diagram (37) with the QMod meriki ‘partial’. The syntactic representation of QMod poli is presented below:

The masculine form of adjective πολύς, πολλή, πολύ, “polis”, appears in plural, nominative in this example, and it is part of the nominal. It is placed in the determiner’s position or as it is called a D-position as it is the case of its English counterparts many and much. English many usually combines with countable nouns as in many men while, English much prefers mass nominals like much sugar. The Greek polis combines with mass noun in its singular form as in polis kosmos “much crowd”, polli fasaria “much noise”, poli klama “much crying” or with a countable noun in its plural form as in polloi andres “many men”, polles ginekes “many women”, polla paidia “many children”.

Our semantic analysis will follow Barwise and Cooper (1981) and their discussion of Generalized quantifiers (GQ) where NPs like many men denote a set of properties so that many men came to the party will denote the set of the people who are men and who came to the party. Barwise and Cooper are of the opinion that “quantifiers correspond to Noun Phrases, not to determiners” ( Barwise and Cooper, 1981 : p. 162) and in the above sentence Many men came to the party, it is the NP many men which functions as the quantifier. Therefore, in Many men came to the party the quantificational NP many men is the set that contains all the sets that contain many men as its members, and many men came to the party will be true if there is an intersection of the set men and the set of the people who came to the party; the intersection of these two sets will be the new set of ‘the men who came to the party’, and it is demonstrated below in (D):

πολλοί άνδρες “many men” is the GQ in the sense of Barwise and Cooper (1981) which as its English counterpart denotes families of sets and it is also monotone increasing so that for every pair of sets X and Y, if $X\subseteq Y$, then GQ (X) entails GQ (Y). The GQ πολλοί άνδρες “many men” is the intersection of two sets (A) the people who are men i.e., άνδρες “men” and (B) άνδρες (andres) “men” who came to the party.

The formalization of Greek GQ polloi will also be derived from the formalization we have mentioned above of English GQ many men. This is mentioned below:

(34) a) πολλοί άνδρες ήρθαν στή γιορτή

b) polloi andres irthan stin giorti

c) Many men came to the party

d) ∃x [men (x) ∧ came (x) ∧ |men(x) ∩ came (x) ≥ m

e) $〚Many\left(A,B\right)〛$ = 1 iff |A ∩ B| ≥ m/n |A| (a proportional reading)

Greek polloi has been analyzed as a D-quantifier in the sense of Barwise and Cooper (1981) as it appears in a nominal position of determiner combined with a plural countable noun. We have favored the masculine form of the adjective πολύς “many” but similarly we could use the feminine (as in example (35) or the neuter (as in example (36)) in the following sentences with the same formalization:

(35) a) πολλές γυναίκες ηρθαν στην γιορτή

b) polles ginekes irthan stin giorti

c) Many women came to the party

d) ∃x [women (x) ∧ came (x) ∧ |women(x) ∩ came (x) ≥ m

e) $〚Many\left(A,B\right)〛$ = 1 iff |A ∩ B| ≥ m/n |A| (a proportional reading)

(36) a) πολλά παιδιά ηρθαν στην γιορτή

b) polla pedia irthan stin giorti

c) Many children came to the party

d) ∃x [children (x) ∧ came (x) ∧ |children(x) ∩ came (x) ≥ m

e) $〚Many\left(A,B\right)〛$ = 1 iff |A ∩ B| ≥ m/n |A| (a proportional reading)

In terms of syntax, the above examples (36a, b, c) could be represented in the following syntactic tree (E):

In this default example, poli appears as part of the verbal domain as it is demonstrated in (H):

where n = 4/5.

We mentioned that poli is an A-quantifier over a set of subevents so that, if we are to consider the 4 out of 5 visits John paid to his mother then we might say that e’ is before e’’; e’’ is before e’’’ and e’’’ is before e’’’’.

Therefore, we might say that if x is John and y is John’s mother, then x visits y and the event of visit e takes place many times so that, the main event visit is an accumulation of many subevents e’ so that the sentence O Yiannis episkeftete tin mitera tou poli “John visits his mother a lot’’ is true.

In a sentence like O Yiannis episkeftete tin mitera tou poli “John visits his mother a lot”, poli “a lot” would be the quantifier, its restrictions would be the verb episkeftetai “visits” and it will take scope over the event e of John visiting his mother, or over the times John visits his mother.

We have followed Solt (2009) and Tsouhlaris (2011) in defining the Greek quantifier poli and its English counterparts much, many, a lot in specific syntactic environments that allow poli to be interpreted as a QMod, as a D-quantifier or as a A-quantifier.

According to Matthews (2014) a quantifier is “1. any word or expression which gives a relative or indefinite indication of quantity, e.g., many in many children or few in few children who came: distinguished as such from a *numeral, which gives a precise and absolute indication of quantity, e.g., in the three children who came. Applied by Quirk et al., *CGE, specifically to elements, such as many or few, that, with numerals, have the position in a noun phrase of a *postdeterminer. 2. An operator in logic such as the *existential quantifier ( $\exists$) and the *universal quantifier ( $\forall$). Thence, in linguistics, a class of *determiners such as some, no, all, or most, characterized by ones whose meaning can be represented by expressions containing such an operator. e.g., that of all in All birds fly can be shown by the universal quantifier in an expression ( $\forall x$) (bird (x)→fly (x)) “For all x, if x is a bird, then x flies”; that of no in No snakes fly with the existential quantifier in ~( $\exists x$) (snake (x) & fly (x)) “There exists no x, such that x is a snake and x flies.” ( Matthews, 2014 : p. 330).

While a generalized quantifier is “(L)ogicians” term for an expression interpreted as representing a set of subsets. Adapted, in *formal semantics, to represent the meaning of noun phrases: e.g., some people, denotes the set of all subsets of individuals whose members are a subset of people; likewise, e.g. John denotes the set of all subsets whose member is John. A sentence such as Some people like formal semantics is true if, in a given situation, a property denoted by the predicate (that of liking formal semantics) holds of, in this case, some people. If noun phrases denote generalized quantifiers, a generalized quantifier can accordingly be represented as a function from a property (such as liking formal semantics) to a truth value (true or false in given circumstances).” ( Matthews, 2014 : p. 156).

This slight diversion was to shed light in what we mean when we talk about quantifiers and what is their semantic function in a sentence. We will consider Matthews (2014) when we offer our summary of the quantificational profile of Greek poli “much, many, a lot of” and we will realize that Matthews’ (2014) description of quantifiers fit Greek poli as it appears in 3 different syntactic structures.

We have so far analyzed Greek poli as a QMod following Tsouhlaris (2011) , as a D-quantifier following Barwise and Cooper (1981) and as an A(dverbial)-quantifier following Lewis (1975) . The same analyses are given to its English counterparts.

QMod πολύϛ, πολλή, πολύ “much, of great quantity” was first analyzed as a quantifier over mereological sets of degrees and amounts as it appeared in the sentence I polli katanalosi tou krasiou blapti “the great (much) consumption of wine is harmful”. QMod poli quantifies over proportional sets of degree of katanalosi “consumption” and amount of krasi “wine”. Let us consider that wine is kept in bottles of 400 gr each; these proportional sets were identified in relation to each other, so that each degree of consumption corresponded to a “part” of wine or so many bottles of wine, being consumed. Polli as a proportional QMod operates over these mereological sets, so that the great (much) consumption of wine could correspond to a great number of wine bottles. For instance, if all our wine bottles are 10 in total, we might say that the consumption of 8 wine bottles corresponds to a polli katanalosi tou krasiou “the great (much) consumption of wine”.

Similarly, πολύς, πολλή, πολύ, when appears in specific syntactic environments that allow its translation into “many, much”, favors an analysis as a D-quantifier in the sense of Barwise and Cooper (1981) . We considered the default example Polli andres irthan stin giorti “Many men came to the party”, which welcomes a similar analysis to that of its English counterpart many as in Many men came to the party.

Normally English many is analyzed as a quantifier based on the Generalized Quantifier Theory of Barwise and Cooper (1981) seen as “a quantifying determiner” that expresses relationship between two sets (type <et, <et, t>>) as explained by Sojda (2019) :

[many <et, <et,t>>] = λPλQ.|P∩Q| > n, where n is some large number

Therefore, a sentence like Many students attended the lectures would be formalized as follows: ∃x [student (x) ∧ |x| > n ∧ attended the lecture (x)].

This is identical to the way we can analyze the Greek counterpart of many: πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “many”, as we see in the following example:

(38) Πολλοί μαθητές παρακολούϑησαν τις διαλέξεις

Polloi mathites parakolouthisan tis dialeksis

“Many students attended the lectures”

Which would be formalized as $\exists x$ [fititis “*student” (x) ∧ |x| > n ∧ parakolouthise tis dialeksis “attended the lecture” (x)]. The formal analysis of the above sentence could also be followed for the Greek sentence polloi andres irthan stin giorti and its English translation Many men came to the party.

Solt (2009) builds the portrait of many and much and views them as degree predicates as “they denote gradable predicates of intervals (sets of degrees) on the scale of some dimension of measurement, allowing them to occur in a wide range of contexts in which scales and degrees are present” ( Solt, 2009 : p. 5). Solt analyzes Q-adj as degree predicates or gradable predicates of scalar intervals and states that “Q-adjectives are gradable, in that they describe degrees of some property there can be more or less of” ( Solt, 2009 : p. 12).

Barwise and Cooper (1981) sees them as quantifying determiners, but they also note that “these words fail to fit neatly into the categories in which other determiners can be classified” ( Solt, 2009 : p. 7).

Solt goes on to present the etymological analysis of English many and much; many “derives from the Old English manig, and still maintains the Germanic adjectival ending -y (from the older -ig) found in words like thirsty, mighty, windy and many more” … “Much likewise has adjectival origins, having come to Modern English from Old English micel ‘great’” ( Solt, 2009 : p. 11).

Πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “much, many”, the Greek counterpart of much and many, is also an adjective. Babiniotis (2002) describes the Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ as an adjective that refers to “αυτος που υπάρχει σε μεγάλη ποσότητα” Babiniotis (2002: p. 1448) , which means the one which exists in a great quantity. Poli as a D-quantifier bares similarities with its English counterpart at a syntactic and semantic level and follows a similar semantic analysis based on Barwise and Cooper (1981) .

In addition, Modern Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ has also been analyzed as an existential quantifier over entities and events, which relates to English many and much/a lot. Besides being a D-quantifier, we have also analyzed Greek poli as an A(dverbial)-quantifier over events, following Lewis (1975) . Πολύς appears to be an existential quantifier over entities and events according to the syntactic environment it is placed in. Note examples like:

(39) pino poli krasi

I drink a lot of wine

In example (39) poli quantifies over krasi, that is the amount of wine I drink

(40) pino krasi poli

I drink wine a lot

While in this example (40) poli quantifies over the event e of drinking as happening a lot or many times.

Holton et al. (2006) state that this quantifier “may be used with or without a noun (that) inflect like adjectives, and agree in gender, number and case with the relevant noun or with the item which they denote:

(41) irthe polis kosmos

Many people came

(42) irthan polles fititries

Many women (students) came

Poli has also been analyzed as an A (dverbial) quantifier over events as discussed in chapter 3, since it is able to exist in similar syntactic environment to that of English A-quantifier much.

By the above discussion, we have managed to summarize the possibilities of Greek poli appearing in different sentences with 3 different semantic interpretations that allow it to be portrayed as a QMod, a D-Q and an A-Q.

Matthews (2014) clarifies the difference between a modifier and an intensifier and states that a modifier is “an element in a syntactic construction which is not required by the one that it relates to. Thus, a noun does not in general have to be qualified by an adjective; in the construction, therefore, of heavy boxes, the function of heavy is a modifier of boxes. An intensifier very, as in very heavy boxes, would in turn modify heavy.” ( Matthews, 2014 : p. 248). On the other hand, an intensifier is “(A) word or other unit used to emphasize or amplify the meaning of another, or of a larger unit of which it is part. E.g., very in a very big house is an intensifier, or has an intensifying function, in relation to big; …” ( Matthews, 2014 : p. 195).

Let us, now, see how Greek poli functions as an intensifier that is placed before adjectives or adverbs which is actually the desired position intensifiers claim.

Holton et al. (2006: p. 316) mentions that the neuter singular forms of quantifier πολύϛ “many, much, of great quantity, a lot” “may also function as adverbs: πολύ ‘very, much’ (comparative περισσότερο ‘more’)” ( Holton et al., 2006 : p. 339) as in the example ena poli kalo kommati “a very good piece” where poli “very” is placed before the adjective kalo “good” which it intensifies. This takes our discussion to a completely different domain, that of intensifiers.

Babiniotis (2002: p. 1443) mentions πολύ as an “επιρρρημα χρήσης (ήδη αρχ.) του ουδέτερου πολύ του αρχ. Επιθ. πολύς”, which means that πολύ “poli” as an adverb is the neuter of the ancient Greek adjective πολύϛ, πολλή, πολύ “polis, polli, poli” meaning “many, much, a lot” but also “very”.

Joseph and Philippaki-Warburton (1987) state that in Greek “(T)he concept of ‘X in large measure’, i.e. ‘very X’, is usually expressed periphrastically through the use of the neuter adjective poli ‘much’ before the adjective, e.g. poli omorfa ‘very beautiful’” ( Joseph and Philippaki-Warburton, 1987 : p. 211). In addition, poli could be found before an adverb fulfilling the same semantic function, as in poli omorfa “very beautifully”. Note that Greek omorfa can function as an adjective and as an adverb bearing the meaning “beautiful” and “beautifully” like the English adjective/adverb fast.

Joseph and Philippaki-Warburton (1987) classify poli among the expressions used to express degree of quality. On the other hand, Holton et al. (2006) mention that “(A)n adverb of quantity modifying an adjective, conveys the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective” ( Holton et al., 2006 : p. 359). Holton et al. (2006) use their examples “(3a) poli kalos ‘very good; too good’ and (3c) poli kaliteros ‘much better’” (ibid) to show the syntactic constructions Greek intensifier poli engages in. Holton et al. also make reference to the function of Greek poli as an intensifier “An adverb may modify an adverb (esp. an adverb of manner) in much the same way as it may modify an adjective” ( Holton et al., 2006 : p. 360) as demonstrated in their examples mentioned below:

“(6) a) πολύ καλά

poli kala

Very well

d) poli kalitera

much better” (ibid)

In addition, πολύ “may be used with adverbs of place and time which have a relative sense” ( Holton et al., 2006 : p. 361).

“(9) a) poli pano/kato

Very far up/down

e) poli voris/arga

very early/late” (ibid).

Tsouhlaris mentions how it is possible that “degree modifiers… modify modifiers (e.g., very in ‘the very tall man’)” ( Tsouhlaris, 2011 : p. 59). On the same subject we quote Parsons (1980) who suggests that adjectives and adverbs stand for functions that map properties to properties. For instance, the adjective brown in Fido is a brown dog “stands for a function which maps the property of being a dog to the property of being a brown dog” ( Parsons, 1980 : p. 37). Similarly, adjective tall in the tall man stands for a function which maps the property of being a man to being a tall man and the adverb poli maps the property of being a “tall man” to the property of being a very tall man. Parsons (1980) mentions that when it comes to adverbs such as slowly in Carlos runs slowly “stands for a function which maps the property of running to the property of running slowly” (ibid). This is precisely how English very works semantically in a sentence like “the very tall man” and its Greek counterpart “o poli psilos andras”. Note that both sentences in Greek and English follow an identical syntax that allows the definite article to combine with the NP “tall man” which also contains the intensifier very preceding the adjective tall.

Greek poli is able to intensify both adjectives and adverbs as described in Parsons (1980) .

Notice the following examples:

(43) inai poli omorfi kopela

She is a very beautiful girl

In (43) above, poli is an intensifier in relation to Greek adjective omorfi “beautiful”, while in (44) below, poli is an intensifier in relation to Greek adverb grigora “fast”:

(44) badizei poli grigora

He walks very fast

Sojda (2019) states that “(T)he term intensifier has been used in various ways in linguistic studies. The most common definitions identify intensifiers with adverbs (belonging to the subcategory of adverbs of manner; intensifiers are also called adverbs of degree, intensive adverbs, degree modifiers, or degree words and are forms that add “a degree measure onto its referent” ( Sojda, 2019 : p. 57). Sojda explains how the status of a word changes at the sentence level and the way an adverb combines with an adjective allows alterations in the meaning of the adjective; the way we personally perceive this is by the difference in meaning, let us say, between big and very big, in which the intensifier very alters the meaning of adjective big.

In our attempt to give the syntactic representation of Greek intensifier poli we will follow the syntactic representation of English very as presented in Tsouhlaris (2011) . It is mentioned below in (K):

(45) Inai poli omorfi

She is very beautiful (very + adjective)

(46) Perpatai poli grigora

He’s walking very fast (very + adverb)

Our first example, in the scale of beauty as inai poli omorfi “she is very beautiful” is based on Klein (1998) and would be described as in (L) below:

Klein states that “Dutch heel has different interpretations as adjective, but the adverb is grammaticalized as expressing a high degree only” ( Klein, 1998 : p. 61). This seems to be the case of Greek poli too which is used as a adverb of degree in sentences like inai poli omorfi “she is very beautiful” or odigi poli grigora “he drives very fast”; like English very, Greek poli is also used to strengthen negation as in efage poli ligo “he ate very liitle”, etc.

The difference between Dutch heel and Greek poli is that poli does not express an absolute degree like Dutch heel but a high degree of what its preceding noun denotes.

Our focus is the Modern Greek poli which we believe it can also be a case of grammaticalization being derived from the neuter of the Greek adjective polis, polli, poli “much, many, a lot, very”.

Babiniotis (2002: p. 1443) also testifies in this as he mentions: πολύ as an “επιρρρημα χρήσης (ήδη αρχ.) του ουδέτερου πολύ του αρχ. Επιθ. πολύς”, which means that poli as an adverb is the neuter of the ancient Greek adjective polis “many, much, a lot”.

Based on Klein (1998) we can examine the syntactic constructions poli is found in:

a) It is used to intensify gradable expressions as in inai poli omorfi kopela or badizei poli grigora.

b) it can be used as a quantifier as in our examples discussed in Chapter 2, following the example I polli katanalosi tou krasiou which declares poli as a QMod following Tsouhlaris (2011) ; or as described in Chapter 2: a D-quantifier in the sense of Barwise and Cooper (1981) , an analysis based on our example polli andres irthan “many men came”. It is also described in Chapter 4 as an A(verbial)-quantifier following examples like o Yiannis episkeftetai tin mitera tou poli “Gianni visits his mother a lot”.

c) poli is also used to strengthen negation as described as in poli heirotera “much worse”.

d) because of its meaning it does not act as a completive like Dutch heel but it does add intensity when used as a prefix in words like poli-tragoudismenos, poli-agapimenos, poli-asholos, poli-hrisimopimenos and poli-katastremenos.

Klein (1998) mentions that “Dutch heel has different interpretations as adjective, but the adverb is grammaticalized as expressing a high degree only” ( Klein, 1998 : p. 61) and this is the case with Greek poli; the singular of Greek adjective polis can be translated into “much, a lot, lots, a good/great deal, a large quantity, plenty, many” (cf. Stavropoulos, 1995 : p. 724); the masculine plural form of Greek adjective polloi means “several, many” (cf. Stavropoulos, 1995 : p. 722) while the intensifier poli means mainly “very”. Therefore, we believe that Greek poli like English very is a case of grammaticalization, deriving from Ancient Greek πουλύϛ, πουλλή, πουλύ “poulis, poulli, pouli” according to Stamatakos (1999: p. 813) .

In our discussion of Modern Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “polis, polli, poli”, we were able to define a polysemous semantic profile that allows this Greek adjective to function as a Quantificational Modifier (see chapter 2), a D-quantifier (see chapter 3) and an A-quantifier (see chapter 4). In addition, in specific syntactic environments πολύς, πολλή, πολύ “polis, polli, poli” is found to also act as a modificational intensifier as described in chapter 6.

Poli is under the influence of grammaticalization which allows it to appear in very different syntactic constructions that allow it to function not only as a D- and A-quantifier-following Barwise and Cooper (1981) and Lewis (1975) respectively—but also a Q-Mod-following research done by Tsouhlaris (2011) —and a degree intensifier following the analysis of Parsons (1980) , Sojda (2019) and Klein (1998) .

In the Introduction we also mentioned that the neuter of this adjectives appears as a prefix, part of a compound like poli-asholos “multi-tasked” or poli-diavasmenos “well read”. It is a fact that:

Greek πολύς, πολλή, πολύ appears in distinct, morpho-syntactic environments that allow it to claim various semantic interpretations. Further research is encouraged in its appearance in compounds as a prefix in order to shed more light into its polysemous nature. We believe that poli as a prefix can also receive the same analysis as a quantifier and intensifier depending on the semantics of the root it combines with.