One uses "among" when something occurs involving more than 2 people, and between for stuff involving two people. Right?
Hence, one would think that the sentence, "the objective of the workshop is to facilitate discussions between atendees," is grammatically incorrect: shouldn't the phrase be "discussions among antendees" since there will, one hopes, be more than two souls at the workshop?
But no! there are a few exceptions to this rule!
The Dr. Grammar Frequently Asked Questions page
summarizes the exceptions thus, siting other rhetorical sources:
If more than two are involved in a united situation, between is used: 'Between the four of us, we raised a thousand dollars.' If a comparison or an opposition is involved, between is used: 'There was great rivalry between the three colleges. It was difficult to choose between them.'" (Parle-Craig, Ruth, and Vincent Hooper. Barron's 1001 Pitfalls in English Grammar 70)
How bout that, eh?
Posted by mc at March 19, 2005 12:13 PM