Quantity approximation in English and French 151
Table 7. Grammatical categories of the approximators uncovered
in BENews and FRENews: examples
Rank BENews FRENews
1 adverb
nearly one million people
preposition
un salaire jusqu’à 30,535 euros
2 MORE/LESS than
fewer than 2,000 units
PLUS/MOINS de
plus d’une centaine de maisons
3 preposition
under $40
adverb
au moins 10% du capital
4 inflectional suffix
thousands of consumers
derivational suffix
une vingtaine de pays
5 determiner
several million pounds
verb
une valeur avoisinant les 7 millions de
dollars
6 coordinating conjunction + adverb
10 per cent or more
derivational suffix + inflectional suffix
des milliers de contribuables
7 coordinating conjunction
two or three years
coordinating conjunction
en 30 ou 40 ans
8 adjective phrase
close to 50 per cent
inflectional suffix
des milliards de mètres cubes
9 verb
nearing 8 per cent
adjective phrase
un tarif proche des 30,000 euros
10 punctuation mark
annual synergies of €300m–€350m
noun phrase
un minimum de 40 livres
11 number noun
a dozen hues
coordinating conjunction + adverb
un rendement de 7% ou plus
12 derivational prefix
another multibillion-pound bailout
punctuation mark
20–25% des deals
13 comparative adjective + than
interest rates are higher than zero
14 noun phrase
something like 60,000 suppliers
15 derivational suffix
Hyacinth is 70-something
16 coordinating conjunction +
comparative adjective
unemployment rate could rise to
9 per cent or higher
(17) Le taux officiel de chômage, lui, continue de flirter avec les 10%.
(FRENews) [‘hovering around 10%’]