Sextus  +  153567 Mon, 31 Oct 05 04:38 PM "The disagreements between the defenders of moral realism show that moral values are not real". Is it not the case that here one must use "between" only if there are two defenders, but "among" if there are more than two? Sextus Sextus Joined on Sat, Nov 6 2004 Buenos Aires Regular Member 731

	nona the brit  +  153600 Mon, 31 Oct 05 06:27 PM That's true. nona the brit Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004 England Veteran Member 11,713 The name says it all.

	paco2004  +  153621 Mon, 31 Oct 05 08:12 PM Hi I agree we have no choice other than 'between' in the case of two defenders. But as for the case there are more than two defenders, I think we can choose both 'among' and 'between'.  OED says about the choice as follows. In all senses, 'between' has been, from its earliest appearance, extended to more than two. In OE. and ME. it was so extended in sense 1 (=local relation of points), in which among is now considered better. It 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.' Suppose there are three defenders, A, B and C. If I hear 'disagreement(s) between them', I feel like : A and B disagree,  B and C disagree, and C and A disagree. If I hear 'disagreement(s) among them', I feel, it can also mean such a case that A and B agree but C disagrees with A and B. But it's my humble opinion and I might be wrong as usual. [FYI] results of Google survey disagreement(s) between three …  115+(19) disagreement(s) among three …     67+(8) paco paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English. Dates

	Sextus  +  153633 Mon, 31 Oct 05 08:39 PM Aha... Very interesting post, Paco. I think you usually tend to give this kind of useful and exact information. Thanks to you and the others who have answered my question, Sextus Sextus

	paco2004  +  153770 Tue, 01 Nov 05 04:21 AM Hello Ricky As you see, I'm a mere learner. So I cannot tell you anything with confidence. What I can say is something I found in written documents or the result of google survey. As for "difference between/among (the) three", the google gives:               difference(s) between (the) three … 126,000+208,000+24,000+21,000=379,000               difference(s) among (the) three …   122,000+42,000+21,400+600=186,000 If you restrict the search domain into Gutemberg.org (collection of English classic literature), the result will be :               difference(s) between (the) three … 18+2+7+2=29               difference(s) among (the) three …   0+0+0+0=0 paco paco2004 Difference Between, Literature

	MrPedantic  +  154103 Wed, 02 Nov 05 01:29 AM Yes; "differences between the three men" might relate to differences as in 1) "things that are different" or 2) "disagreements". But "differences among the three men" would only relate to "disagreements". MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 12,592 ...opella forensis / adducit febris...