What's the function of "si" in this sentence?

Question

Here is an excerpt from Jules Verne's De la Terre à la Lune:

[...] les journaux de l'Union célébraient leurs inventions avec enthousiasme, et il n'était si mince marchand, si naïf «booby» [Badaud.], qui ne se cassât jour et nuit la tête à calculer des trajectoires insensées.

My understanding is this sentences tries to say that even the "mince marchand" and "naïf «booby»" are trying to calculate trajectories, but what is the grammatical function of the word "si" in this case?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '14 at 23:21

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Despite the extremely "purply" nature of this particular sentence, this is the exact same use of Si as in the sentence Il était si bête qu'il croyait que la lune était en fromage: "There was no booby so naive that they weren't spending day and night calculating crazy trajectories."

I think "too naive to spend [...]" would also be an accurate translation, but this is very intricate prose with somewhat dated vocabulary, so I'm not entirely sure about that.

answered Aug 16 '14 at 23:21

Circeus

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Thank you for your answer, which made me realize that I'm actually confused about the overall structure of the sentence. The "ne" being used alone made me think that maybe combined with "si" it has some meaning, but it seems it is on its own here. I looked up rules for using "ne" alone, but they don't seem to apply, so is it just a dated usage here as you mentioned? – sxu Aug 17 '14 at 22:32
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The use of ne is literary (though not necessarily archaic: here it is the combination of strongly dated vocabulary and convoluted syntax, not to mention the subjunctive imperfect, that makes the sentence archaic) usage instead of the compound negative. It used to be that it alone was used for negation. – Circeus Aug 18 '14 at 01:09

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:38

Dans cette phrase, si (devant un adjectif ou un adverbe) est un adverbe d'intensité avec pour sens : à ce point, à un tel degré.

Les synonymes sont alors : aussi, tellement.

... et il n'était si mince marchand, si naïf « booby » ...

... et il n'était de marchand mince (pauvre, réalisant peu de ventes) à ce point, de « booby » tellement naïf ...

^{Référence du Robert [2-SI.II.1]}

score -4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 17 '14 at 13:14

-4

In this sentence "si" means too in English

answered Aug 17 '14 at 13:14

Mina Ezzat

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No, the word would be aussi. You couldn't have too in English here anyway (nor aussi in French) since this is a negative sentence; it would be not … either, and in French pas … non plus. – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile' Aug 17 '14 at 14:18
@Gilles: too would correspond to trop in this sentence. It's perfectly possible (both in French and in English), but with a different meaning. – Stéphane Gimenez Aug 18 '14 at 09:30
@Gilles: And we can even find a few too, with this meaning: not too bad, not too pleased, not too serious. – Stéphane Gimenez Aug 18 '14 at 09:35
"si petit" peut etre "Too small" c'est un example – Mina Ezzat Aug 18 '14 at 12:15
so in this sentence si means too – Mina Ezzat Aug 18 '14 at 12:15
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@MinaEzzat It would be “so small”, not “too small”. “Too small” would be trop petit. And “so small” is more or less what it means, as other answers explain. – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile' Aug 18 '14 at 19:12

What's the function of "si" in this sentence?

3 Answers3