2

In the following phrase:

The film offers a considerable number of long takes, making use of the technique to lace the film with comedy but also to quiet the need for more energetic forward movement of plot so that the subtle exchanges between and among characters might resound more deeply.

Why would the author have written “between and among” in this way? I understand the meaning of “exchanges between”, but not the meaning of “exchanges among”. What is the difference, whether real or implied, between those two terms here?

tchrist
  • 134,759
Moha
  • 31
  • 3
  • Between and among are near-synonyms. Some people believe between can only be used with 2 people/things, and among with more than 2, so they may be trying to be comprehensive. – Stuart F Mar 30 '24 at 15:57
  • 'Exchanges among' is probably included to refer to those conversations that are not one-to-one. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 30 '24 at 16:43
  • @StuartF While there are indeed some who “believe” this, they’re wrong. There is, alas, no end of massively copycatted popular mythologizing going on between between and betwixt on the one hand and between amid(st) and among(st) on the other. See for example: 1, 2, 3, 4. [....] – tchrist Mar 30 '24 at 17:01
  • 1
    [....] This erroneous “belief” can and does lead to the generation of ungrammatical constructions. The OED notes some of these when they write: “[Between] is still the only word available to express the relation of a thing to many surrounding things severally and individually, among expressing a relation to them collectively and vaguely: we should not say ‘the space lying among the three points,’ or ‘a treaty among three powers,’ or ‘the choice lies among the three candidates in the select list,’ or ‘to insert a needle among the closed petals of a flower.’ ” – tchrist Mar 30 '24 at 17:04
  • Moha, does this answer your question, perhaps supplemented with @EdwinAshworth’s comment? – tchrist Mar 30 '24 at 17:12

0 Answers0