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Consider the sentence:

> 今度の旅行は **全部で** 何人行きますか。

I would roughly translate it literally to:

> For this trip, **in the domain of "total"**(abstract location), how many
> people will be going?"

And then more naturally as:

> How many people in total are going on this trip?

**My conjecture:** で is taking on the role of "location where a verb/event
occurs".

**(Question 1)** What is the role of で for this type of usage?

* * *

Other things for your consideration:

JMDict and WWWJDIC categorises 全部 as:

> Adverbial Noun (副詞的名詞) **(Q1.1)** ,
>
> noun (temporal) (jisoumeishi) **(Q1.2)**

**(Q1.1)** But I don't think 全部で acts adverbially to modify the verb 行く. Am I
right? (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

**(Q1.2)** I don't think this part is relevant right? (Again please correct me
if I'm wrong)
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2011-08-07T02:42:56.470
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grammar particles particle-で
で　used for abstract location?
Another definition of the particle `で` is _"the condition/state of how the
action takes place"_. This is the definition that your example fits in to. I
suppose if it helps you to think of it as an "abstract location", then feel
free to do so (as I firmly believe each individual has the right to do
whatever helps them learn best), but I'd suggest just memorizing this as one
of the "atomic" definitions of `で` and not trying to relate it to one of the
others.

Here are some examples sentences for this definition of `で`:

>   * 一人で行きました → I went _by myself_.
>   * 土足で部屋に入ってはいけない → You can't enter the room _with your shoes on_.
>   * 大きな声で話す → Speak very loudly ("Speak with a big/loud voice")
>
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2011-08-07T03:30:52.943
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> 全部で

is an expression meaning "in total", and is strongly related to the fixed way
to say "N of us went to X" (XにN人で行きました). Rather than an abstract location,
it's closer to the "mean" で, the one you use to say "I went by car".

So, it's like "By what did you go there" (なにで行きましたか？), "By what number did you
go there" (なんにんで行きましたか？), and so on.
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2011-08-08T02:57:28.857
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answer