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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004"More than" versus "Less than"
Hi All, How do you interpret the meaning of "more than" and "less than"? If someone says "more than 30", does it mean a value greater than 30 (30 excluded) or a value greater than 30 (30 included)? If someone says "less than 30", does it mean a value smaller than 30 (30 excluded)? Do you personally think that there is a cultural difference in the perception of "more than" and "less than" across different native language speakers? Thanks in advance for your input > How do you interpret the meaning of "more than" and "less than"? If > someone says "more than 30", does it mean a value greater than 30 (30 > excluded) or a value greater than 30 (30 included)? If someone says > "less than 30", does it mean a value smaller than 30 (30 excluded)? I think that if you say "More than 30 tomato cans.", that means 31, 32, 33 or 34 tomato cans, and so on, NOT 30 tomato cans. But, if you say "More than two years.", that might be two years and a day or two years and six month, not necessarily 3 or 4 years. > Do you personally think that there is a cultural difference in the > perception of "more than" and "less than" across different native > language speakers? Dunno. > Thanks in advance for your input You are welcome!  SignatureEnrico C ~ No native speaker Celery | alt.languages.english in <news:4a214d7c.0401270723.7f059c9c@posting.google.com> > How do you interpret the meaning of "more than" and "less than"? If > someone says "more than 30", does it mean a value greater than 30 (30 > excluded) or a value greater than 30 (30 included)? If someone says > "less than 30", does it mean a value smaller than 30 (30 excluded)? I think that if you say "More than 30 tomato cans.", that means 31, 32, 33 or 34 tomato cans, and so on, NOT 30 tomato cans. I agree with that But, if you say "More than two years.", that might be two years and a day or two years and six month, not necessarily 3 or 4 years. and with that too > Do you personally think that there is a cultural difference in the > perception of "more than" and "less than" across different native > language speakers? Dunno. Well, I'm French, and it seems that I think the same way as Enrico (whose "culture" I don't know), but I actually think there's a cultural difference in considering the notion of time. In some cultures, 10 minutes of happiness are not as long as 10 minutes of torture... And some (e.g some of my pupils who are African and used to live in a desert) don't even know what 30 means... they can't figure out how many "30 pens" are, so "30 years"!!! Phine Hope it'll help! Thank you for all your replies. I agree with your answer. That was the answer I gave to a Ｔaiwanese who asked me about this question yesterday. I believe there may be some cultural differences in the perception of "more than" and "less than", just from what I heard from this Taiwanese who told me that the value of 30 should be included for the phrase "more than 30", but the value of 30 should be excluded for the phrase "less than 30" in Chinese. I am a native Cantonese speaker. I also speak Mandarin Chinese but I attended an English school when I was small. That is why I come to think my different educational and language background is the possible cause of such a difference in the perception of these two phrases. Thanks again for your reply > Celery | alt.languages.english > in <news:4a214d7c.0401270723.7f059c9c@posting.google.com> [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > Phine > Hope it'll help! Thank you for all your replies. I agree with your answer. That was the answer I gave to a Ｔaiwanese who asked me about this question yesterday. I believe there may be some cultural differences in the perception of "more than" and "less than", just from what I heard from this Taiwanese who told me that the value of 30 should be included for the phrase "more than 30", but the value of 30 should be excluded for the phrase "less than 30" in Chinese. I am a native Cantonese speaker. I also speak Mandarin Chinese but I attended an English school when I was small. That is why I come to think my different educational and language background is the possible cause of such a difference in the perception of these two phrases. Thanks again for your reply > Celery | alt.languages.english > in <news:4a214d7c.0401270723.7f059c9c@posting.google.com> [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > Phine > Hope it'll help! >Hi All, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >Thanks in advance for your input The numerical value of "more than 30" cannot "include 30", obviously. 31 is more than 30. Anything more than 30 is MORE THAN THIRTY. Ditto for "less than". As to your question on culture, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by it. Is it kind of like the question about the theoretical glass being either half full or half empty? |
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