nomconjobjs: between you and me/I (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

In Tom's example, I would say that A = 440.  But I could see the
argument for A = 540 -- "outnumbers" could refer to the excess portion.
Arnold's logic is A = B*(factor).  Given the use of the word
"outnumber", I wouldn't say that A = B*(1 + factor) is wrong.  If the
original sentence were "A outnumbers B by a factor of 1.0", this is the
only way I could interpret it.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Arnold Zwicky
> Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 10:55 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: nomconjobjs: between you and me/I
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: nomconjobjs: between you and me/I
>
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> --------
>
> On Feb 22, 2010, at 8:41 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
> > Is the phrase "by a factor of" common in US?  To say A outnumbers B
> > by a factor of 4.4 - what does that mean?  If B is 100 than A is  ?
>
> my usage of "a factor of N" is short for "a factor of N:1", meaning
> that the frequency of A is greater than the frequency of B, and the
> ratio of A to B is N:1.
>
> > Sorry.  Too old for new math.
>
> there's nothing new-mathy about it.  it's entirely a matter of the
> language i used to talk about the data, which apparently is opaque to
> at least one reader.
>
> (by the way, the new math was new in the 1960s, which is quite some
> time ago now.)
>
> arnold
>
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