Word Difference – ‘A Little is Known’ or ‘Little is Known’

quantifiersword-difference

A little is known about the author of this book.

I was asked to find the error in the sentence above. I thought there is no error in the sentence and told the same. But a few people are insisting that a little is incorrect. It should be replaced with little since it has negative connotation.

I couldn't understand how they can say it has negative connotation without further context.

I believe the sentence above is correct grammatically but has different meaning from the sentence with little.

Am I wrong? Did you find the sentence ungrammatical? Can you please clarify?

Best Answer

Both examples are technically grammatical:

  1. A little is known about the author of this book.
  2. Little is known about the author of this book.

However, the second sentence is much more idiomatic and likely to be said. Little is known about X is a common way to phrase things, but the version with a little is not commonly said, so it's not really surprising that people would consider it a mistake.

People tend to expect things to fit the patterns they're used to hearing, and if you say something that almost fits a pattern they know, they're likely to think you made a mistake. If they heard sentence 1, they'd probably think you meant to say sentence 2, even if both versions are technically grammatical.

Both a little and little are quantifiers which express small numbers. So what's the difference?

  • A little is a positive paucal1 quantifier, indicating that a small amount does exist. The emphasis is on the existence of a quantity, even if it's small.
  • Little is an approximate negative quantifier, expressing that an amount is almost but usually not quite zero. The emphasis is on the lack of existence, even though a very small amount may exist.

As a negator, little licenses negative polarity items:

Very little is known at all about the author of this book.

This would be ungrammatical with a little, which is positive:

*A very little is known at all about the author of this book.　←　ungrammatical

The same is true of a few (positive paucal quantifier) and few (approximate negative quantifier).

Notes:

　1 From Latin paucus 'few; little', indicating a relatively small number.

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