Casi 「幾乎」是一個廣為研究的西班牙近似副詞，相形之下，另一個也常被翻譯為「幾乎」的por poco，則較少被使用跟研究。這兩個副詞給人的第一印象是同義詞，但深究後會發現他們在意義跟出現分布上的差異。本文分析por poco和casi作為動詞組(VP)的修飾語，在動詞組之前和之後的phase (過程)解讀及outcome (結果)解讀，近似成分和極性成分。

前人文獻指出casi可以有兩種過程解讀及結果解讀，本文指出casi在過程解讀中，僅出現在動詞組後，而por poco只出現在結果解讀中，並可置於動詞組之前或之後。另一方面，por poco只能評論過去的事件，但casi可用在過去、現在及未來的事件。
por poco在動詞組之前，和casi 的outcome (結果)解讀，有同樣的相近成分跟極性成分，但在動詞組之後，por poco似乎只有相近成分，而沒有極性成分。在動詞組之後的por poco，出現在有負面暗示的動詞、否定的動詞組跟差一點沒發生的狀況下。por poco在動詞組之後，主要在負面解讀，著重在事情差一點就無法完成，或是期望的事情沒有發生。就相似性而言，casi的相近成分跟極性成分在動詞組之前和之後都一致。

Casi ‘almost’ is a Spanish approximative that has been widely studied in literature. A lesser used and studied approximative has been por poco, often translated as ‘almost’ as well. These two adverbs are synonym at first sight, but a deeper look shows a range of differences in distribution and meaning. This study offers an analysis of por poco and casi as VP modifiers. They are analyzed in terms of their placement before and after the VP, their phase interpretation vs. outcome interpretation, and their proximality and polarity.
In the area of outcome and phase interpretation, previous literature has shown that casi can have both outcome and phase readings. The present work shows that por poco has only outcome reading in its positions before and after the VP and casi after the verb presents only phase interpretation. On the other hand, por poco can only comment on past events, whereas casi can refer to past, present and future events.
Due to its outcome reading, por poco in pre-verbal position seems to have the same proximality and polarity components as outcome interpretation in casi, in its canonical position. This shows a scale based on the possibility for a change of state to happen. Por poco in post-verbal position seems work on the same scale, the possibility for a change of state, but it does not change the polarity of its predicate. Even though this instance of por poco requires a much more negative context, it seems to carry a positive reading. Post-verbal por poco seems to appear with negative implicative verbs, negated VPs, and situations where the desired event was close to not happening or the expectation is not met. Casi in post-verbal position differs in is proximal and polar components from its appearance before the verb, in that it does not have outcome interpretation, thus, it comments on the degree in which the predicate is met, and not change of state.

Table of Contents v
Table of Tables vii
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background and motivation 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 5
1.3 The organization of the thesis 5
Chapter 2 Literature review 7
2.1 Almost 7
2.2 Lexical properties of por poco and casi 10
2.2.1 Summary 13
2.3 Syntatic distribution 13
2.3.1 Distribution of casi 13
2.3.2 Distribution of por poco 19
2.4 Semantic properties 21
2.4.1 Proximality and polarity of casi 21
2.4.2 Polarity and proximality of por poco 28
2.5 Summary 30
Chapter 3 Analysis 32
3.1 Introduction 32
3.2 Por poco 33
3.2.1 Pre-verbal por poco 34
3.2.2 Post-verbal por poco 37
3.3 Casi in post-verbal position 43
3.3.1 Proximality and polarity of casi in post-verbal position 44
3.4 Summary 46
Chapter 4 Conclusion 49
4.1 Summary 49
4.2 Limitations 49
4.3 Suggestions for further study 50
References 51

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