Aside: Back in my day, we could use the term “relatively” to mean “in relation to” some other thing. Over time it became “in relation to the average thing” instead of a specific thing. Now it just means “a little bit”/“sort of”. Now people use “comparatively” to convey what “relatively” used to mean. Except… you just now seem to be making that same “relatively” transition with the word “comparatively”. I just find language interesting, and wonder what the next “relatively” will be once that meaning has been lost even to “comparatively”.
That may be an artifact of my native language. In German the term vergleichsweise (Vergleich meaning comparison) is used like that and sometimes these constructions spill over to my English writing.
no no no, its not a critique specifically of you. Native english speakers do this all the time. And I’m sure its inevitable that “comparatively” will make that transition too.
I’m interested: is there a german word to replace "vergleichsweise " to more explicitly mean “comparison”?
Well it’s German, we can always split up our long words into a long string of shorter words.
If I want to compare something to another specific thing I would probably never use “vergleichsweise” (which is more or less just “rather” like you described “relatively”).
I would probably use “im Vergleich zu” (in comparison to).
But maybe that’s just me.
And writing in English about German stuff makes my brain feel weird so maybe I don’t make much sense rn.
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True, true…
Aside: Back in my day, we could use the term “relatively” to mean “in relation to” some other thing. Over time it became “in relation to the average thing” instead of a specific thing. Now it just means “a little bit”/“sort of”. Now people use “comparatively” to convey what “relatively” used to mean. Except… you just now seem to be making that same “relatively” transition with the word “comparatively”. I just find language interesting, and wonder what the next “relatively” will be once that meaning has been lost even to “comparatively”.
That may be an artifact of my native language. In German the term vergleichsweise (Vergleich meaning comparison) is used like that and sometimes these constructions spill over to my English writing.
no no no, its not a critique specifically of you. Native english speakers do this all the time. And I’m sure its inevitable that “comparatively” will make that transition too.
I’m interested: is there a german word to replace "vergleichsweise " to more explicitly mean “comparison”?
It literally means “comparison-wise”, so there’s no more explicit translation, I guess.
Well it’s German, we can always split up our long words into a long string of shorter words.
If I want to compare something to another specific thing I would probably never use “vergleichsweise” (which is more or less just “rather” like you described “relatively”).
I would probably use “im Vergleich zu” (in comparison to).
But maybe that’s just me.
And writing in English about German stuff makes my brain feel weird so maybe I don’t make much sense rn.