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This question was closed without grading. Reason: No acceptable answer
Jan 29, 2016 09:41
8 yrs ago
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Serbian term

najveći broj

Serbian to English Science Mathematics & Statistics describing majorities/proportions
Seems like a simple question but I feel as if I have never found a good solution in 20 years of translating and have always worked around it - it may also be that it is incosistently used in Serbian:

how do you render "najveći broj" when talking about statistics in English?

E.g. "Najveći broj organizacija ne raspolaže podatkom o visini sredstva koja izdvaja za kancelarijski pribor" - is it "majority"? Nope, in this case the figure is 33.6%. A majority in English can only be "more than a half".

We do not say "the greatest number of organisations" either in English (try Googling in quotes).

So is there an actual expression for this? In voting it is called a "plurality", I believe, but what about in statistics?
Proposed translations (English)
3 most frequently / the most common response was ...

Discussion

Mira Stepanovic Jan 29, 2016:
Perhaps "the largest number of":
https://www.google.rs/search?q="largest number of" statistic...
in this context
Daryo Jan 29, 2016:
looks similar to the case of the "first past the post" voting system - when there are 3 or more candidates, the candidate with the highest number of votes is often not the one for who MOST people voted!
Vesna Maširević Jan 29, 2016:
It's not the same as "the biggest/greatest number" but... it's a solution :)
Have you seen this? (from a comment on the languagelog page)
The Semantics of most - http://www.tc.umn.edu/~timh/most/salt2008-paper.pdf
Mark Daniels (asker) Jan 29, 2016:
"How about 'the highest percentage'?"

Oh yeah! Good point, well made! I suggest you propose this as an answer - this now seems blindingly obvious.
milena beba Jan 29, 2016:
How about 'the highest percentage'?
Vesna Maširević Jan 29, 2016:
Office for National Statistics (ONS) GOV.UK
the greatest number of
the biggest number of
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/news-release/more-disputes...
Vesna Maširević Jan 29, 2016:
Me too... But, for some reason I prefer "the biggest" to "the greatest number". And would use "most" instead of "the most". In any case, the dilemma only exists when it's a multiple choice question and the result is: 40% of organisations know their data, 30% not sure, 20% don't care, 10% didn't answer. So, in this particular case, where they either know or do not know how much they spend on it, I suppose the things are clear (those that know are also the majority)
PS
Or not! :)
Lingua 5B Jan 29, 2016:
the greatest, the highest, the highest raw number I saw these terms in stats contexts...
Mark Daniels (asker) Jan 29, 2016:
OK, wait, I've got this, "The GREATEST NUMBER of teachers (48%) delivering xxx forms of teaching are paid separately for this" - I think that might work over "most".
Mark Daniels (asker) Jan 29, 2016:
Sorry, it's all percentages, but obviously based on a raw number.

I don't know, "THE MOST teachers (48%) delivering XXX forms of teaching are in the category of those who are paid separately for this" - sounds horribly clumsy...
Mark Daniels (asker) Jan 29, 2016:
Here is another example, hope it helps with clarity: "Najveći broj nastavnika (48%) koji realizuju XXX oblike nastave su za to posebno plaćeni". Vesna I see what you are saying - I am not really happy with using "most" to mean anything other than a "comfortable majority", I think it would be misleading to use it any other way (e.g. to refer to a plurality) but I really never thought about it, so maybe I should consider that rather simple and elegant solution!

See this discussion: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2510. Perhaps "THE most" is what we really mean here...
Aleksandar Protić Jan 29, 2016:
Most I agree with Vesna - most seems like the best option here.
Lingua 5B Jan 29, 2016:
stats I thought he was looking for a clarification in terms of statistics?
Vesna Maširević Jan 29, 2016:
Very clear in Serbian Translating it gave me a headache or two though... But...
MOST - the biggest number of... http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/most
Lingua 5B Jan 29, 2016:
sounds vague in the Serbian sentence just based on that one sentence, it doesn't provide super clarity to me (I can see you are looking for nuances in the meaning)
Mark Daniels (asker) Jan 29, 2016:
NB: in this case what they are referring to is obviously "the most populous category was comprised of those who did not know how much they spent".

Proposed translations

5 days

most frequently / the most common response was ...

Some circumlocution seem appropriate.

But, for me "the most respondents said X" doesn't necessarily imply a majority, only that this was the most frequent response. Whereas, if I saw "most respondents said X" (without an article) I would expect a majority.
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