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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Use of 'much'
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 09:16:32 +0100
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I happened to hear an American pops ong recently which contained a usage
which seemed strange to me:
"I do love you much."
In British English that is wrong. Is it acceptable American, or a
dialect form, or a slang usage?
Following comments are about British English use of 'much'.
It seems that 'much' can't be used without some sort of qualifier. "I
love you very much", "too much" and "not much" (or "I don't love you
much") are acceptable, as are "I have very much money" and "not much
money", but "I love you much" and (to an extent) "I have much money"
aren't (the latter is barely acceptable in spoken form, not in modern
English in written form where it is considered archaic).
I can't find any rationale for this, and Fowler doesn't seem to address
it (F. comments on the comparatives "much more" and "much less", and on
confusion of 'much' with 'very' but not on its own).
Chris C
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