One more comment on this sentence -- Brock comments on the relatively
greater processing difficulty of 'more people don't' over 'so few people
do'. I think this has to do with default values along scales like 'more
--- few'. These scales should be neutral, but people tend to assign the
default value to the positive end. We don't ask how short people are; we
ask how tall they are. We don't ask how short a stick is, we ask how
long it is. Even if someone says 'there was a small amount of water in
the cup', we are likely to further inquire 'how much, exactly?' rather
than 'how little, exactly?' The latter would only be chosen, I think, if
the context were already focused on there being less in the cup than
expected. Similarly, if someone says 'my daughter is getting way too
thin', one is more likely to say 'Oh, how much does she weigh, then?'
rather than 'how little does she weigh', even though the context makes
clear that the weight is less than desired. Think of a scale as a
thermometer: there's a part of the tube that is filled with mercury and
a part above it that is empty. 'How much' highlights the positive extent
of the mercury, while 'how little' highlights the the empty part of the
tube, and the difference between the empty part and the full part.

Therefore the combination of the positive 'more' with the negative
'don't' is contrary to expecations how the defaults work.

As to Cognitive Grammar vs. systemic-functional grammar, as a partisan
of CG, and having read at least an introduction to SFG, I find that CG
can further refine concepts of SFG such as 'participant' and 'process'.
CG introduces further distinctions that, I think, help tease out
important differences better than SFG does.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics 
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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