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03:17 Jan 27, 2012
English to English translations [PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase:BIGGER resources
Is the word BIGGER used correctly here?
The whole sentence:
It may seem that this contradicts the basic principles of economics, according to which BIGGER resources give more advantages and opportunities.
Explanation: It is not wrong — but it is perhaps less common.
In terms of register, 'big' might often be considered less formal in register than, e.g. 'large'.
Stylistically, if the author used the term deliberately, one might be led to think that it was a deliberate stylistic choice, as it will to some extent draw attention to itself — this may or may not have been deliberatly sought.
Lexically, one might say it is a slightly odd choice: 'big' almost invariably refers to physical size or scale, whereas 'resources' often refers to something that might be considered more numerically. As an example, if a company were talking about gettin its sales team out into the field more, they might be looking to increase resources: buy more cars; but if they said they were looking to buy 'bigger resources', then one could imagine they meant vans, say, instead of cars. Generally, 'bigness' is not a word one associates with 'resources'; at best, one often finds 'large-scale resources' for example.
All in all, I would not criticize this if it were penned by a serious, literate, native-speaker writer who clearly was using it consciously and deliberately; but I would certainly advise caution to anyone else trying to use the expression and not understanding the full ramifications of so doing. If this came up in a proof-reading task, I would certainly flag it up in most circumstances.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 jours (2012-02-01 18:19:37 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
LOL! Also Toni fiant and Toni truant (as well as their homonyms with different spellings!)
I think native speakers might easily use "bigger" in informal conversation and this person has simply written what s/he would normally say: "My cousin has loads of/bigger/a hell of/more, etc. responsibility". In regard to "resources", my reasoning is the same: "The resources in the library are greater/bigger/better". However, I agree with you both, it does seem strange in a formal, written context.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
9 mins confidence:
bigger resources
greater resources
Explanation: would suit the context better, in my opinion.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 10 mins (2012-01-27 03:28:44 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
or just more resources?
Jayne Fox Local time: 13:05 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Other options would be better, ok. But is the use of the word BIGGER here (with the word "resources") correct grammatically, stylistically, etc. from whatever point of view???
Explanation: Larger gas/oil fields.
I guess, the author said "bigger" for the sake of expression. You know, "big" is one of these "grand" words - "this man is BIGGER", "my dog is bigger (almost a big bad wolf), "I have a big problem", "big bang theory"...
Alexandra Taggart Russian Federation Local time: 05:05 Native speaker of: English, Russian PRO pts in category: 4
Explanation: It is not wrong — but it is perhaps less common.
In terms of register, 'big' might often be considered less formal in register than, e.g. 'large'.
Stylistically, if the author used the term deliberately, one might be led to think that it was a deliberate stylistic choice, as it will to some extent draw attention to itself — this may or may not have been deliberatly sought.
Lexically, one might say it is a slightly odd choice: 'big' almost invariably refers to physical size or scale, whereas 'resources' often refers to something that might be considered more numerically. As an example, if a company were talking about gettin its sales team out into the field more, they might be looking to increase resources: buy more cars; but if they said they were looking to buy 'bigger resources', then one could imagine they meant vans, say, instead of cars. Generally, 'bigness' is not a word one associates with 'resources'; at best, one often finds 'large-scale resources' for example.
All in all, I would not criticize this if it were penned by a serious, literate, native-speaker writer who clearly was using it consciously and deliberately; but I would certainly advise caution to anyone else trying to use the expression and not understanding the full ramifications of so doing. If this came up in a proof-reading task, I would certainly flag it up in most circumstances.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 jours (2012-02-01 18:19:37 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
LOL! Also Toni fiant and Toni truant (as well as their homonyms with different spellings!)
Tony M France Local time: 03:05 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 137
The translation workplace 
