Human Rights

[ahinton]

The problem with this sort of argument is that it attempts to give what can only be anecdote a sheen of objectivity.

Take the word many. How many is 'many'?

(I think I asked that on another thread just recently.)

It's not even true that if you've identified a 'many', what's left can only be a 'few'.

Whilst it cannot be precise, it should at the very least mean "a substantial proportion" of something and, unless and until verifiable statistics can be put up to corroborate such a claim, it can be no more than you describe it.

[jean]

Whilst it cannot be precise, it should at the very least mean "a substantial proportion" of something...

Not so - though people often use it in the hope that you will infer the substantial proportion they have not, in fact, stated.

Take this:

...A few are genuine asylum seekers or refugees. However, many are not. Many are economic migrants...

Without doing violence to in the normal meaning of many, you could equally well say say Many who claim to be seeking asylum are economic migrants. But far more are genuine refugees.

(This may seem like nitpicking, but I think it's important.)

[amateur51]

Not so - though people often use it in the hope that you will infer the substantial proportion they have not, in fact, stated.

Take this:

Without doing violence to in the normal meaning of many, you could equally well say say Many who claim to be seeking asylum are economic migrants. But far more are genuine refugees.

(This may seem like nitpicking, but I think it's important.)

Sadly the poster appears to have abandoned his argument unclarified, jean.

[jean]

They usually do, ams.

[ahinton]

Not so - though people often use it in the hope that you will infer the substantial proportion they have not, in fact, stated.

I had written of the use of "many" in such contexts that
"whilst it cannot be precise, it should at the very least mean "a substantial proportion" of something"; whilst some people do indeed resort to it in the hope that you mention, you do not say what you think that it does or should really mean or how it should properly be used, so I am unclear as to the thinking behind your countering what I wrote by writing "not so".

Take this:

Without doing violence to in the normal meaning of many, you could equally well say say Many who claim to be seeking asylum are economic migrants. But far more are genuine refugees.

(This may seem like nitpicking, but I think it's important.)

Would that not more reasonably and accurately be expressed as "there are those who claim to be seeking asylum who are in reality economic migrants, but their number is far exceeded by those who are genuine refugees"?