Much to the despair of all our readers, I refuse to let this fantastic topic die:
You asked me to clarify the meaning of "B lacks popularity compared to A". If someone tries to make a statement easier to understand it's logical that they will use different words.
You are completely right about that. But as you are making a subtle distinction, you need to take care in your choice of words. But I was indeed wrong in my complaint, as I did not realize you actually went back full circle to your first wording. But the fact is that the distinction itself is still not clear.
I´ll quote you exactly not to be provocative or anything, just to avoid confusion. First question was:
Federer is more popular than Nadal. Does it mean Rafael lacks popularity compared to Roger?
And the second you stated:
Saying B lacks popularity compared to A isn't the same as saying B lacks popularity that A has.
So you are saying that "to lack popularity" (which is a sentence present on both statements) is different from "being less popular" (the opposed sentence is in the first statement) or "lack popularity that A has" (second statement). I guess it was here that you got everyone confused.
You make one side clear on the next post:
If you say B lacks popularity compared to A, it means you claim that, relatively speaking, B isn't popular in comparison with A.
Perfect, it is relative. But you are distinguishing this from "being more/less popular", which is
also relative. Or, as in the second post, distinguishing it from "lacking the popularity that A has", which is relative by definition.
It seems that you are trying to distinguish an absolute from a relative quantity, but there is no absolute quantity in discussion: we never said "A is/isn´t popular", unless if you assume that when "B lacks popularity that A has", B has zero popularity (i.e, it is not popular), while A has (
is popular). In fact, in general we understand "popularity" as something that can grow continuously, and not as some binary, yes or no quality that you either have or not (like, for example, being dead. You cannot be "more dead").
I am looking forward to your one line response ((maybe two)). I usually enjoy them (I am not being sarcastic). And, you know,
@Moxie wanted the discussion to move forward, and I love to do exactly the contrary of what those progressive women suggest.
