What is the grammatical function of 'that' in this sentence?

Question

Scenario: 'Are you stressed by his threat?' Answer: 'I'm not that concerned.'

msh210 · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-30 07:34:43Z

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Adverb. It means "very" and applies to concerned. The sentence means the same as I'm not very concerned.

answered Mar 30 '11 at 7:34

msh210
2,487724

	Thanks... To me, 'not that concerned' suggests I am less concerned than if I said 'I am concerned' so I could say 'I'm not very concerned.' whilst being concerned... – nicholas ainsworth Mar 30 '11 at 8:52
	@nicholas: I agree that "not that concerned" usually means less concerned than "concerned"; but so does "not very concerned"! You could say "I'm concerned but not very concerned" but that is different from "I'm not very concerned" - and you could replace "very" by "that" in both of these without changing the meaning. – Colin Fine Mar 30 '11 at 11:18
	(Not in response to previous comments.) Note that that can also refer to a specific degree. He's four foot three, and I'm not even that tall. But in the conversation @nicholas ainsworth asked about in the question, absent any further context, its meaning would be as I answered. – msh210 Mar 30 '11 at 14:54

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