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Preposition "up to" - neutral?



 
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Preposition "up to" - neutral? #1 (permalink) Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:41 pm   Preposition "up to" - neutral?		  
Quote:
Powerful Afgan quakes kill up to 4000 people.

Is the "up to" in this sentence neutral? I mean, I'm not sure if the speaker thought that 4000 people were a big number, or didn't have any opinion about the number.

I looked up dictionaries, "up to" means "as much as." This, to me, seems to tell that the idea of the speaker that the number is big is reflected. Is that wrong?
Guinevere
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Preposition "up to" - neutral? #2 (permalink) Sun Sep 02, 2007 10:12 am   Preposition "up to" - neutral?		  
Hi Guinevere,

On balance I would say that 'up to' in your example is as you suggest 'neutral' and indicates that the speaker/writer believes that thiis is the figure but is not absolutely sure about the number. It hints at the number 'could be' as many as 4,000.

Alan
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to or -ing / try to do, try doing, help to do, help doing | capability of doing v.s. capability to do
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