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During the sixteenth century the population more than doubled.
As soon as you read it, you know what it means, but upon closer scrutiny, does the construction mean what is meant?
To me, it seems that there is a strange verb in this sentence: more-than-double. And now the population has "more-than-doubled"!
But because I assume it far-fetched for such a verb to exist, the only other possibility left is to consider the sentence as wrong. Any insight on that?
Hope not to have yet tired you with such questions of mine! 🙂
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I enjoy your questions though I have nothing to say back this time.
Just this- maybe because there's no better way to say it than just it. Do you have a suggestion?
She more than loves him. She worships him.
The concert more than entertains. It mesmerizes.
Housing prices more than doubles. They go through the roof.
We could say that "population increased more than double", maybe.
Though I like the strange features of languages, they are fun. And we'll soon get used to them because they are similar to many object names in that they are taken up arbitrarily.
another interesting instance is:
Suppose that the person A's height is 210 cm. It's absolutely tall. Now if there is a person B whose height is 207 cm. Again, it's absolutely tall, but when referring to him, we say, "Person B is shorter than person A". Hey, come on, is he SHORTer than A?!!
But we could, AWKWARDLY, say that "He is less tall than A"!!!
Short and tall are relative terms. Everyone and everything is shorter or taller than someone or something else. When you say person A or person B is absolutely tall, you are not comparing them to Robert Wadlow who was 251 cm. They are both shorter than him. But Wadlow was shorter than the pecan tree in my yard.
To say, “Person B is shorter than person A†is correct but it probably misses the idea you may want to get across. Saying, "Person A is taller than person B" would imply that they are both tall. Even better would be to say, "Person B is tall but person A is taller."
Rafee, you want to keep the sense that both persons are tall, correct ? Easy :
B is not as tall as A
I can see this objection immediately: But who is taller???
It is a specious objection, because language is not based on hard logic like that. By living language, the statement above should be understood as:
Both are tall, but A is taller
Likewise you can use 'not as ... as' with any adjectives, with no risk of ambiguity as to which entity is more or less so.
Martha Barnette
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Grant Barrett
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