Illogical Comparison

1
Illogical Comparison

• Complied by Ms. Terri Yueh

2
Principles of comparison

• A comparison expresses a relationship between two
  things.
• Be complete
• Be logical
• Be comparable
• Common errors
• Grammatically incomplete comparisons
• Ambiguous comparisons
• Illogical comparisons
• Incomplete comparisons

3
Grammatically incomplete comparisons

• ? Apples are better. (better than what?)
• ? Our new car gets better mileage. (better than
  what?)
• ? Our new car gets better mileage than our old
  one did.
• ? Tainan features more park land per person than
  any other in Taiwan. (any other what?)
• ? Tainan features more park land per person than
  any other city in Taiwan.

4
Ambiguous comparisons

• He enjoys watch basketball more than he enjoys
  watching baseball.
• ? I admire her more than Tom.
• I admire her more than I admire Tom.
• I admire her more than Tom does.
• ? Tom loves his wife, so do I.
• Tom loves his wife, and I love my wife, too.
• Tom loves his wife and I love his wife, too.

5
Illogical comparisons

• Two things are not comparable
• ? A doctors income is greater than a teacher.
• A doctors income is greater than a teachers.
• A doctors income is greater than that of a
  teacher.
• A doctor has a greater income than a teacher has.

6
Incomplete comparisons

• As.as
• ? He is strong, if not stronger than, Tom.
• He is as strong as, if not stronger than, Tom.
• He is as strong as Tom, if not stronger.
• Other, any other ? items in the same class of
  things
• Mary is better than any other student in our
  class.
• Any ? items in different classes
• ? Mount Everest is higher than any Asian
  mountain.
• ? Mount Everest is higher than any other Asian
  mountain.
• Mount Everest is higher than other Asian
  mountains.
• Mount Everest is higher than any American
  mountain.
• (comparing Mt. Everest, an Asian mountain,
  with American mountains, a different class)