Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

The word �arguably� is given different nuances in its definitions in English-Japanese dictionaries at hand. I recently found that the situation is the same with EFL/ESL dictionaries.

Which definition, #1 or #2 below, is more applicable with �arguably� as in the following sentence?

Mo�s is arguably the best club in town.
1. used for atating your opinion or belief, especially when you think other people may disagree. (from MACMILLAN Dic.)
2. used for atating your opinion or belief, as a way of giving more authority to it. (from COBUILD Dic.)

fw

[lotus]

Hi fw,

Actually, it has more to do with the opinions of others.

Onelook's quick definition is:
adverb: as can be shown by argument (Example: "She is arguably the best")

When I say "Dave's ESL Cafe is arguably the best English site on the web", I mean that if were to poll a large sample of web-surfers, the result would show that the larger percentage would prefer Dave's Cafe. The opinion may be mine, but is backed by others.

For example, when someone says "Analog amplifiers have arguably the best fidelity", they should be prepared to present facts and opinions to back that statement. They might even present empirical data.

When we say that something is arguably the best, we mean that we can present evidence (mostly from others) that the statement is true.

The definitions from MacMillan and Cobuild are not particularly good, in my opinion.

Here's some definitions from other dictionaries for "arguably":

- that can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument (American Heritage)
- used to mean that a statement is open to dispute but could be defended in an argument (Encarta)
- as is able to be supported by argument (Wordsmyth)


--lotus

[advoca]

Beautiful reply, Lotus.

Arguably perfect.