The governor may be a precise or vague count/measurement. This includes nouns like “lack”, “dearth”, “shortage”, “excess”, or “surplus” (meaning a too-small or too-large amount).

Question test: the governor answers “How much/many of (object)?”

The main preposition is of.

1. Simple QuantityItem:#

• Pour me a bottle(’s worth) of beer. [but see Stuff#006] 001

• I have 2 years of training. 002

• I ate 6 ounces/a piece of cake. 003

• An ounce of compassion 004

• There’s a dearth of cake in the house. 005

• This cake has thousands of sprinkles. 006

• They number in the tens of thousands. 007

• I have a number/handful of students. 008

• I have a lot of students. 009

• We did a lot of traveling. 010

• There is a lot of wet sand on the beach. 011

• A pair of shoes 012

2. If the measure includes a word like “amount”, “quantity”, or “number”,¹ the construal QuantityItem↝Gestalt is used (because the amount of something can be viewed as an attribute):#

• QuantityItem↝Gestalt:

  • A generous amount of time 013

  • A large number of students 014

But if “amount”, “quantity”, etc. is used without a measure as its modifier, it is simply Gestalt: see Gestalt#009.

3. If the governor is a collective noun not denoting an organization, the construal QuantityItem↝Stuff is used (note that a “consisting of” paraphrase is possible):#

• QuantityItem↝Stuff:

  • Can you outrun a herd of wildebeest? 015

  • Put 3 bales of hay on the truck. 016

  • A group/2 groups/A throng of vacationers just arrived. 017

For organizational collectives, see OrgMember.

4. Otherwise, if the object refers to a specific item or set, and the quantity measures a portion of that item (whether a quantifier, absolute measure, or fractional measure), the construal QuantityItem↝Whole is used:#

• QuantityItem↝Whole:

  • I ate 6 ounces of the cake in the refrigerator. 018

  • I ate half/50% of the cake. 019

  • All/many/lots/a lot/some/few/both/none of the town’s residents are students. 020

  • I have seen all of the city. (= the whole city) 021

  • A lot of the sand on the beach is wet. 022

  • 2 of the children are redheads. 023

  • 2 of the 10 children in the class are redheads. 024

However, simple Whole is used if the portion is specified as “the rest”, “the remainder”, etc., as in Whole#020.