between inclusive

[Dan Goncharoff]

If you asked me to pick a number between 1 and 10, I would find that
unclear -- are 1 and 10 possible picks?

If you asked me to pick a number from 1 to 10, I would know exactly what
you mean.

In other contexts, however, I would have to make a judgment based on
specificity. Your "somewhere between 40 and 50 dollars" is not the same as
"patients between the age of 40 and 50".

DanG


On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 5:13 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      between inclusive
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The OED says about "between": Of the relation of a number, quantity,
> degree, or quality to two others above and below it, or differing from it
> in opposite ways; Intermediate to.
>
> One of the cites is:
>
> Between five and six miles from the city.
>
> If I emphasize the words "between," "five" and "six" just right, I think I
> can make it not include five or six, but generally speaking, I don't think
> that's the case.
>
> Wiktionary has the same issue:
>
> In the position or interval that separates (two things), or intermediate
> in quantity or degree.
>
> This works fine for the following sample sentence:
> 1. John stood between Amy and Mary.
>
> but less well for 2 and very poorly for 3:
> 2. Let's meet between two and three.
> 3. I want to buy one that costs somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.
>
> My concern is not merely petty pedantry: I just got called on this very
> issue by my Japanese client who thought my use of "between" was
> inappropriate as a translation of Japanese copy which is inclusive. I
> explained that while the OED agrees with her, I had to nevertheless
> disagree.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
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