Redundancy

Question

The passage below is from a web-site. In the underlined part of the passage, “more than” seems redundant, so I made two other possible alternatives. What do you think of my line of thought?

Thanks in advance.

http://westsidetoastmasters.com/reso...ion/chap5.html
The halo effect also affects political elections. In 1974, a Canadian Federal election board found attractive candidates received more thantwo and a half times as many votes as unattractive candidates.
??two and a half times as many votes as unattractive candidates
??two and a half times more votes than unattractive candidates

Enoon · Accepted Answer

It is not redundant. If the actual figure was 2.53 times as many, that would be more than two and a half.

"Two and a half times more" is both redundant and confusing.

Clive · Answer

eg
Two and a half times 2 is 5
More than two and a half times 2 is 6 or more.

Clive

Stenka25 · Answer

Thanks a lot for your elaborate answer, enoon.

But I made my second option [?two and a half times more votes than unattractive candidates] based on WEBSTER's Advanced Learners Dictionary as follows : ? Her salary is five times greater than mine. = She earns five times as much money as I do.

Could you check that out for me, and tell me what difference between the second option and Webster's example sentence?

Enoon · Answer

Stenka25Thanks a lot for your elaborate answer, enoon.But I made my second option [?two and a half times more votes than unattractive candidates] based on WEBSTER's Advanced Learners Dictionary as follows : ? Her salary is five times greater than mine. = She earns five times as much money as I do.Could you check that out for me, and tell me what difference between the second option and Webster's example sentence?

To be the same case, the example from Webster would have to be "five times more dollars than". You can get into all kinds of trouble with such expressions. Five times anything has to be more than it, and the word "more" technically should include the base figure. If you made 100 dollars more than I do, and I made 200, you'd make 300, so the idea of five times more makes my thinker hurt. English and arithmetic do not work and play well together.

To make your sentence the same as Webster's, it should be "Canadian Federal election board found attractive candidates' election tallies were more than two and a half times greater than those of unattractive candidates." It works without the "greater than" (Canadian Federal election board found attractive candidates' election tallies were more than two and a half times those of unattractive candidates.), but nobody is so fussy that they'd have a problem either way.

You will hear things like "five times more than" all the time, and nobody is actually confused by it, but I try to avoid using it because it does not stand up to scrutiny.

Stenka25 · Answer

I cannot thank too much for your thoughtful answer, enoon.
Thank you again.

Stenka25 · Answer

Thank you as always, Clive.

Redundancy

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