Re: OT: Musical languistics

Quoting John Cowan <cowan@...>:

> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > > But I agree with Sturgeon's Law, except that I'd say everything's
> 99%
> > > crud, of which, 2% is excellent crud.
> >
> > Reminds me; does this English expression mean that 2% of the total is
> crud, or
> > that 1.98% is?
>
> The latter, I think, on the basis of the "of which", which expands to
> "of the 98%".  English is not well-suited to making precise
> quantitative
> statements (which doesn't mean it can't be done).
In Swedish, some people (eg, me) are very careful about the difference between
_procent_ "percent" and _procentenhet_ "percentage point", whereas others
happily use _procent_ for either meaning. In the last general election, the
Left Party went from about 12% to about 8% of the vote - quite alot worse than
the _4 procent_ fall many people are saying that they suffered, if you ask me!

                                                        Andreas

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