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Accusative: degree/measure as adjective complement

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τόν τε Ἐπίκουρον πολλὰ κατὰ τὸν λόγον ἠγνοηκέναι καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον κατὰ τὸν βίον

‘[Timocrates] further [claims] that Epicurus did not know much about philosophy and even less about life.’ (D. L. 10.1.7)

The accusative signals degree or measure with comparatives and superlatives.

Lexical usage

τί ‘to what extent?’, τι ‘to some extent’, οὐδέν and μηδέν ‘by no means’ always occur in the accusative. The accusatives πολύ ‘much, very’ and ὀλίγον ‘a little, a bit’ are used interchangeably with the dative. Most classical authors prefer πολύ and ὀλίγον to πολλῷ and ὀλίγῳ.

Syntactic usage

Degree or measure can be expressed not only with comparatives and superlatives of adjectives, but also with those of adverbs (e.g. πολὺ θᾶττον ‘much faster’).

Example Sentences: 

καὶ τάδε μὲν ἀμφὶ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ὀλίγον ὕστερον ἐγένετο

And these events took place a little later around the fortress. ֍

σχήματος μὲν, ὀλίγον ἀνωτέρω ἄκρην χεῖρα ἀγκῶνος ἔχειν, βραχίονα δὲ κατὰ τὰς πλευράς

With regard to posture, the hand should be placed a little higher than the elbow, and the arm by the side.

τό θ’ ὑπέργηρων φυλλάδος ἤδη

κατακαρφομένης τρίποδας μὲν ὁδοὺς

στείχει, παιδὸς δ’ οὐδὲν ἀρείων

μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ Δαρείου χρυσίον κτήσασθαι δεξαίμην πολὺ πρότερον ἑταῖρον

NO DUTCH TRANSLATION [provisional translation]