Universal quantifiers are typically modified by approximative modifiers like bijnanearly, nagenoegalmost, vrijwelnearly and zowatabout. Some examples are given in (287).

Being subject to modification by the approximative modifiers is a typical property of all universally quantified elements. It also applies to the predeterminers al and heel in (288a-b), which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 21, to universally quantified adverbial phrases such as nooitnever in (288c), and so on.

In addition to the approximate modifiers above, universal quantifiers can be modified by modifiers that emphasize that all entities satisfying the description are included, like echtreally, letterlijkliterally, volstrektcompletely, werkelijkreally, etc.

Another way to achieve the same semantic effect is to use the X maar dan ook X construction in (290), involving the conjunction maar. Note that the emphasizing modifiers in (289) can also be part of the second conjunct of this construction; cf. Hoeksema (2001).

Approximative modifiers can be used not only with universal quantifiers, but also with negatively quantified noun phrases such as niemandnobody or geen boekno book. This is not surprising, since a negatively quantified phrase can easily be paraphrased by a universal quantifier; cf. the equivalence rule ¬∃x φ ↔ ∀x ¬φ.

It is also possible to use modifiers that emphasize that no entity matching the description is included: examples are echtreally, letterlijkliterally, volstrektcompletely, werkelijkreally, etc. The X maar dan ook X construction can also be used to achieve this semantic effect. When the conjunction involves the negative article/quantifier geen, as in (292c), there is a strong preference to also include a modifier such as werkelijk. In the examples with geen, the modified noun phrase is assigned contrastive accent.

The uninflected degree quantifiers veelmany and weinigfew can themselves be modified by degree modifiers, and in this respect these quantifiers behave like gradable adjectives. The inflected forms vele and weinige, on the other hand, usually resist modification, whether or not they are preceded by a determiner. This is shown in the examples in (293a&b). Hoeksema (2013) notes, however, that the degree modifier zeervery is a notable exception; a cursory inspection of internet data suggests that this use is particularly common in (but not limited to) nominal predicates of the type in (293c).

The restriction on degree modification of the inflected forms in (293b) coincides with the restrictions on comparative formation: while meermore can be used without difficulty in (294a), it leads to an unacceptable result in (294b). The use of the number sign indicates that de mindere boeken is acceptable under the reading “the books of lesser quality”, which is not relevant here.

Like most gradable adjectives, veel and weinig have an interrogative counterpart, namely hoeveelhow many/much. Although hoeveel is usually written as a single word, the fact that it contains the element veel suggests that veel is the neutral form of the antonym pair veel-weinig; cf. Section A24.3.2.2, sub ID. Finally, we note that weinig can be coordinated with the negative article/quantifier geenno or, in its independent use, the quantified pronoun nietsnothing, with the resulting meaning “hardly any(thing)”.

The degree quantifier voldoendeenough can be modified by ruimamply, which indicates that the implicit norm is more than adequately met. The quantifier genoegenough does not have this possibility. Voldoende and genoeg can both be modified by netjust, which indicates that the lower bound of the implicit norm has just been reached. The quantifier zatplenty cannot be modified by either of these modifiers.

Example (297a) contains the sequence meer dan voldoende/genoeg. Since meer is the comparative form of the degree quantifier veel, this example raises the question whether the quantifier meer modifies voldoende/genoeg or vice versa. The latter analysis can be supported by the fact that comparatives are usually modified by a dan-phrase, although a potential problem for this analysis is that the dan-phrase modifying the quantifier seems special in that it must precede the head noun boeken, whereas such phrases usually follow the head noun, as shown in the (b)-examples.

However, the pattern in the (a)-examples is actually expected if we adopt the analysis that degree quantifiers are part of a larger phrase headed by the silent noun number in the specifier of NumP: the dan-phrase can be assumed to follow the silent noun number, as shown by the representations in (298). This means that the “unexpected” word order restriction illustrated by the (a)-examples of (297) turns out to be an independent argument for the analysis of noun phrases with prenominal degree quantifiers proposed in Section 20.2.4.

Since the analysis of (297b) is not directly relevant to the present discussion, we refer the reader to Section A4 for a detailed discussion of such cases.