"Many" vs. "Some"

[Nikki Siclunov]

The following is a response to a question we received:

I had a question about the words "some" and "many". on page 122 in the LR Bible it says that "many" and "some" could not be reversed and it was used as an example of an incorrect answer. if the stimulus says "many" people have "some" type of security system you cannot reverse this and have it say "some" people have "many" types of security systems. this is automatically incorrect. however on page 126, 127 the book states that "many can mean some" and was used as the explanation for why the answer was correct! I am not seeing the difference. Please help.

“Many” entails “some;” however, “some” does not entail “many.” For instance, if I told you that I own many T-shirts, clearly it must be true that I own some T-shirts. This inference cannot be made in reverse: if I said, “I have some T-shirts,” it does not automatically follow that I have many of them. It would be entirely possible, however unlikely, that I have only one T-shirt. Why? Because, technically speaking, “some” means “at least one.” By contrast, “many” cannot mean just one. While we cannot say for certain that "many" entails “most,” it designates a quantity that is certainly greater than 1.

Here is a helpful inference ladder: you can always infer the lower quantity modifier from the higher quantity modifier. In other words, going down the ladder is a matter of certainty: if I have all the T-shirts in the world, I definitely have most of them, I clearly have many, and it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that I have some, i.e. at least one, T-shirt. By contrast, going up the ladder is merely a matter of possibility: if I have some marbles, it is possible, but not certain, that I have many marbles; likewise, if I have many marbles, I could have most of them, but we can’t say for sure that I do:

All
Most
Many
Some

Hope this clears things up!

[oktos92]

Hello,

In light of the above explanation, I will like to make a confirmation. On page 1-79 of the coursebook, "Many people have some type of security system in their home" is given as the reverse of "Some people have many types of security systems in their home". However, if the second statement is changed to "Some people have some type of security system in their home", will it be okay to call it a non-reverse statement of the first sentence?

Thanks

A.

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi A,

Yes, indeed - your modification of the Reverse statement would be an inference from the original. If it is true that "Many people have some type of security system in their home," it logically follows that at least one person has some type of security system in his or her home. ("At least one" is logically equivalent to "some").

Hope this helps!

[oktos92]

Yes, thank you!

[rach45]

Hi okay I am still confused about this. On pg 129 of the 2019 edition, the last sentence of the stimulus says "one danger that has not been given sufficient attention is that these holes could lead to severe eye damage for animals of MANY species."
Answer choice C states: SOME species of animals have eyes that will not suffer any damage when exposed to unfiltered sunlight.

I am confused because of the past response that says "many" entails "some." So how is it not true that SOME species' eyes would NOT be damaged from the sunlight if MANY would? help

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey Rach 45,

So the stimulus says that these holes could lead to severe eye damage for animals of many species. This does not say anything about species NOT having eye damage from unfiltered light. We do not know that species will not have eye damage from unfiltered light. The stimulus is about eye damage in the positive, and you are discussing an answer choice about eye damage in the negative (aka not having eye damage). This is a transfer in logic that we are not allowed to make.

If a stimulus says many students at this school play basketball. I would not want to pick an answer choice about kids not playing basketball if this is the only information at my disposal.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Ryan