. . . times lower than . . .

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 11:41 AM 9/5/2007, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: . . . times lower than . . .
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 11:21 AM -0400 9/5/07, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> >I share the original concern:  "Five times lower" sounds strange to my ear
> >and requires mental recomputation every time.  I wonder if this usage has
> >arisen from a general unfamiliarity with fractional computations?  And
> >"twice as short" as a 6-inch item would logically mean 12 inches, wouldn't
> >it?
>
>If I had to vote, it would = '3 inches'.  12 inches would be half as
>short as 6.  But neither of these actually occurs for me.
>
>LH

I agree; none of them makes mental (i.e., psycholinguistic) sense!  And
yet, the new usage _does_ occur.  Go figure (=compute)!

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org