between inclusive

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/4/2013 01:04 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>Yes, although we might not agree on the judgments, I think it's
>clear that the definition of "between" needs to be rewritten to
>allow the possibility of including the endpoints. I would say that
>the dollars and patients examples are both inclusive.

I would say the  "patients between the age of 40 and 50" example
excludes those of age 50; that is, it is intended to be a 10-year,
not 11- or 9-year range.  Others may disagree with my interpretation,
which is perhaps why so many patients die.  In any case, my "between"
for this example is different from the previous definitions -- it
includes one endpoint but not the other.

Joel


>Benjamin Barrett
>Seattle, WA
>
>On Jun 4, 2013, at 6:58 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> > 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:
> >
> >> 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.
> >>
>
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