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In Only a few people donate to this charity., what does the word only modify?

Does it modify people or donate? Something else?

RemiKG
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    It modifies "a few". – Hot Licks Sep 14 '19 at 00:46
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    It could refer to any of the main words in the sentence; which one depends on the stress. Here's a discussion. – John Lawler Sep 14 '19 at 02:08
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    The salient interpretation is that the intended focus is "a few people", so it's a modifier in the NP, i.e. "[only a few people] donate to this charity". – BillJ Sep 14 '19 at 09:01
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    Possible duplicate of Where to place 'only' relative to prepositions? – Xanne Sep 14 '19 at 21:50
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    If spoken aloud with this emphasis: "Only a few people donate to this charity" that would imply that most of the charity's donations do not come from people, instead coming from corporations or lobby groups or whatever, but in written form it's unlikely to mean that. – nnnnnn Sep 15 '19 at 08:18
  • Too many comments but a few votes for an interesting question and answer.There is no consenses among native speakers on any question.It is difficult to answer a question.But somebody has to take the risk if their reputation is low. Those with high reputation can comment as they like and answer without the fear of down voting – Jvlnarasimharao Sep 15 '19 at 13:43

2 Answers2

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I can think of only two viable interpretations here: only modifying a few, and only modifying a few people.

To help explain the difference between the two, let me start by pointing out that, in principle, it may be possible for some entity other than a "person" to make a donation. For example, in an above comment, the user 'nnnnnn' points out the possibility that "corporations or lobby groups or whatever" can make donations; another possibility, since English is used in countless works of sci-fi and fantasy, fables, and children's books, is that members of some other species (space aliens or magical elves or talking animals or whatnot) can make donations.

In the first interpretation, where only modifies a few, the meaning is "Not many people donate to this charity." This could in turn mean that the charity doesn't have many donors (if the speaker is assuming that all of its donors are people), or it could leave open the possibility that it has many donors who are not people. As nnnnnn points out, we can stress the word people in order to suggest the latter possibility: "Only a few people donate to this charity; it draws most of its funds from shell companies, Yoda, and Mr. and Mrs. Turtle." (You could achieve the same effect by saying "actual people" or "true people" or "human people" or the like.)

In the second interpretation, where only modifies a few people, the meaning is "The only donors to this charity are a few people." This rules out any donations from non-people, either because the speaker hasn't considered the possibility or because the speaker is explicitly ruling it out. "This charity helps war orphans by giving them vocational training as soldiers, so they can get hired to go fight the fairies. Now that the war is finally over, and humans and fairies are at peace, only a few people still donate to it."

As you can see, the two interpretations are completely synonymous if we start from the assumption that all donations are from people; so even if you asked the speaker which interpretation (s)he had in mind, (s)he might not be able to tell you.

I've considered three other possibilities:

  • only modifying donate, the idea being that a few people donate to this charity but don't otherwise support it
  • only modifying donate to this charity, the idea being that a few people donate to this charity but do nothing else (within some implied scope of relevant things that people might do)
  • only modifying this charity, the idea being that a few people donate to this charity but not any others

but I can't make any of them work. There isn't a straightforward relationship between what the word only modifies (its "focus") and where it is placed, but certain placements do rule out certain interpretations. If you instead wrote "A few people only donate to this charity", then only could still modify "A few people", and could now modify "donate" or "donate to this charity" or "this charity", but could no longer modify "a few".

I also considered the possibility of only being a conjunction meaning "and yet" (as in Merriam-Webster's example sentence "They look very nice, only we can't use them" [link]), but again, I can't make it work. (Someone else may be able to come up with a context where this sounds natural, but I couldn't manage it.)

ruakh
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  • Focusing modifiers like "only" cannot modify DPs (determinative phrases) like "a few". In the OP's example "only" clearly modifies the NP "a few people". – BillJ Sep 16 '19 at 16:51
  • @BillJ: "How many people came?" "Only a few." – ruakh Sep 16 '19 at 18:52
  • That is a 'fused' determiner-head NP, where "a few" means "a few people". The determiner "a few" and the head are fused, or combined, into the single word "a few", thus "only" is in fact modifying a full NP. This happens a great deal in English grammar – BillJ Sep 17 '19 at 08:13
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Only a few people donate to this charity

If we read the sentence only modifies a few people.

The sentence means only a few people (but not many people) donate to this charity.

only modifies the word or phrase that follows

A few people only donate to this charity

(They just donate but do not do anything other than donating)

A few people donate only to this charity

(But not to any other charity)

In speech the stress may change the meaning.

I herewith attach a link to show how the placement of only changes the meaning.

https://m.wikihow.com/Use-the-Word-%22Only%22-Correctly?amp=1

marcellothearcane
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Jvlnarasimharao
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    @JVL Not quite: in, for example, "We only found one mistake", "only" is not adjacent to the focus "one mistake" but it still modifies it. And in "I only saw Granny at carefully spaced intervals", the focus is the non-adjacent PP "at carefully spaced intervals". – BillJ Sep 15 '19 at 10:04