how (much) connected she is

[JungKim]

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" actress Elizabeth Olsen, who played the role of "Scarlet Witch", said in an interview:

What's so interesting to me is how connected she is and how grounded she is with the universe and how much power she has without realizing it.

The boldfaced portion I take to mean that she (the "Scarlet Witch" character) is very much connected/grounded with the universe, which the character herself doesn't realize but still she has so much power presumably coming from the connection that she has with the universe.

Now, in this context, is it possible at all for the actress to add "much" before "connected" and "grounded" and say this?

What's so interesting to me is how much connected she is and how much grounded she is with the universe and how much power she has without realizing it.

 

[perpend]

There are two parts.
1) She is connected.
2) She is grounded with the universe.

They are separate thoughts, for me.

 

[JungKim]

I thought that she sort of replaced and/or reinforced "how connected she is" with "how grounded she is", and that "grounded" here actually meant "connected to the ground, earth, and eventually the universe". No?

 

[Parla]

No, it would make no sense to add "much".

 

[JungKim]

There are two parts.
1) She is connected.
2) She is grounded with the universe.

They are separate thoughts, for me.

Could you please explain the meaning of 2) and how it's different from 1)?

 

[JungKim]

No, it would make no sense to add "much".

Is it because it's redundant?

 

[perpend]

How connected she is = how many contacts she has
How grounded she is with the universe = how she really is in one with the universe

We really could benefit from more sentences surrounding this context, JK.

 

[Enquiring Mind]

"Much" is redundant. "Connected" and "grounded" are past participles functioning as adjectives, and as adjectives they are grammatically the same as "wide", "yellow", "complicated" or any other adjective.

What's so interesting to me is how wide this river is. (Not how much wide )
What's so interesting to me is how yellow this banana is. (Not how much yellow )
What's so interesting to me is how complicated this problem is. (Not how much complicated )

Don't look for a problem where there isn't one .