Grand nit-picking article from one Mike O'Sullivan of CorpLogBlog, in which he complains, rightly, about the near-universal abuse of "among" to mean "between" in contracts between more than two parties. Apparently the delusion that "between" can be only used between two individual parties is extensive, widespread, and entrenched. I have a very, hrm, nonrational grasp of grammar. That is to say, I've absorbed most of my grammatical notions through casual reading rather than intensive or systemic study. Thus, my use of language is far more habitual and instinctive than it is conscious or deliberate. Even so, when the writer brought up the use of "among" and "between", my immediate response was, "'among' when dealing within a group, 'between' when dealing with individual entities, regardless of number". Who the hell teaches otherwise? Apparently law schools, if the general content of business contracts are taken as evidence.

Via Professor Bainbridge, who is looking more and more like an excellent daily read. Duly blogrolled.