The first crucial insight from linguistic work on hedging is that proportions (and indeed other quantities) are expressed by relating them to another, typically different quantity that we have called the given value V G , with the hedge (if present) indicating the nature of this relationship.
in expressing the proportion 0.259 by "over a quarter," we have an actual value V A (0.259), a given value V G (1/4), and a relationship V A > V G .