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I am rereading PS Bible for MSS/MBT and encountered this statement (FYI; I am using 2017 edition; page 122)
The statement is "many people have some type of security system in their home"
PS classifies this reverse statement "some people have many type of security system in their home" as wrong;
while reading, I did have the sense that the statement is wrong; but I am interested in the logic behind this reversal;
I thought many is some; wouldn't these two statements be the same or am i missing something?
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thanks for the help, everyone! @yifeiwang926 @leahbeuk911 @junhao31351
Yes agreed with @yifeiwang926 here.
So in the first statement, we know: many people have some type of security system.
Things that could be true:
Of the people with security systems, some have 4 types of systems installed (video, alarm, motion sensor lights, etc)
Of the people with security systems, they all only have 1 type installed (alarm)
We're not told how many or what types each of them have, only that they have some type
So, it cannot be said "some people have many types of systems installed," since all we know is that some people have systems, but we don't know details beyond that. That sentence could be true, but if this is a MBT question then that answer is wrong.
@lesktat308 said:
@lesktat308 said:
I feel like “some type of” to be equivalent of “exactly one of a set” where “set” is 1 or more. Where the fact that “type” is singular is key to this concept. So people have exactly one security system we just don’t know what kind.
I also get this feeling that conversion from many to some seems ok in my head, but the other way it seems wrong. But that is not a logically based feeling, just intuition.
Agreed!
Be careful not to take it to the other logical extreme though. "Some type of" does not necessarily mean exactly one of a set. It could be 1 of a set, 2 of a set, or 3, or more, or any combination of security systems. We simply don't know, but this is also why we can't know for sure that people have more than one, because it's possible that everyone only has 1.
Many and some here cannot in my estimation be read as exactly the same in this particular instance:
-Some type of life insurance policy
-Many type(s) of life insurance policies
The statements are not the same. Namely, the many statement, in order to be grammatically correct has to exclude the possibility of 1. The some statement does not have to exclude that possibility. I’m not sure that the lsat has asked us a question with this construct. Not 100% on this, but would love some confirmation if anyone reading this studied English in college.
David
@lesktat308 said:
I feel like “some type of” to be equivalent of “exactly one of a set” where “set” is 1 or more. Where the fact that “type” is singular is key to this concept. So people have exactly one security system we just don’t know what kind.
I also get this feeling that conversion from many to some seems ok in my head, but the other way it seems wrong. But that is not a logically based feeling, just intuition.
Agreed!
I feel like “some type of” to be equivalent of “exactly one of a set” where “set” is 1 or more. Where the fact that “type” is singular is key to this concept. So people have exactly one security system we just don’t know what kind.
I also get this feeling that conversion from many to some seems ok in my head, but the other way it seems wrong. But that is not a logically based feeling, just intuition.
@lesktat308 said:
definition of "many" is context-dependent.
"Many ppl" would generally not be interpreted to mean 2, 3, or 4. But "many security systems"? Thats could be 2, 3, or 4... we don't know how many security systems exist.
I know we like to say many=some. Thats generally true, but not always.
Thank you! I feel like that these two statement rely more on our intuition instead of Lawgic!
definition of "many" is context-dependent.
"Many ppl" would generally not be interpreted to mean 2, 3, or 4. But "many security systems"? Thats could be 2, 3, or 4... we don't know how many security systems exist.
I know we like to say many=some. Thats generally true, but not always.
@junhao31351 said:
“Many type” would be my first inclination as to why this is “wrong.” Are they defining “wrong” here as not grammatically correct?
They are defining the second statement as a wrong AC to the first statement; yes; they also think it is grammatically incorrect; I just don't get it
“Many type” would be my first inclination as to why this is “wrong.” Are they defining “wrong” here as not grammatically correct?