[Vocabulary] "the majority white population" -- meaning

[th.19]

Hello teachers,

I have a question about the phrase in the title.

"the majority white population"

Which of the following does this phrase indicate?

(a) the population as a whole, the majority of which is white
(b) the majority of the white population


Also, in this phrase, should we consider the word "majority"
an adjective? (I looked in the dictionary, but this word was
only listed as a noun). Or is this a form of ellipsis? Or should
we just consider it as a noun phrase?


Thank you for your help!


t.h.

 

[Academic Writing]

Hello teachers,

I have a question about the phrase in the title.

"the majority white population"

Which of the following does this phrase indicate?

(a) the population as a whole, the majority of which is white
(b) the majority of the white population

The way that I usually see it used, sense A is probably the idea. Could you send the full sentence though? It would probably take an error in the original sentence to mean sense B.

Also, in this phrase, should we consider the word "majority"
an adjective? (I looked in the dictionary, but this word was
only listed as a noun). Or is this a form of ellipsis? Or should
we just consider it as a noun phrase?


Thank you for your help!


t.h.

My first thought is that "majority white" is being used together as a compound modifier. Merriam-Webster does actually list "majority" as an adjective, but I see that OED does not. However, it almost looks like "majority" is being used as an adverb, which makes me wonder if this is one of those usages that we see and hear but might not technically be standard. I'm not confident in this though, so please wait for others who are more knowledgeable on this one to weigh in.

Also, depending on what type of document you are writing, you might have to capitalize "White." Chicago style does not, APA style does, and I'm not sure about Oxford style off the top of my head.

 

[th.19]

Thank you for your reply, sir.


This is the original sentence. It's from a passage about
South Africa and their national rugby team.

"Nearly every player on the national team, the Springboks, was white.
Inevitably, the team lacked support among the majority black population."

Considering that 80% of the South African population is black,
it does seem like (a) is what the phrase intended, but I wasn't really
sure if (b) could be excluded as a mistake.

---

I don't have a Merriam-Webster dictionary with me at the moment.
I checked the OED and LDOCE and found that both of them only
have it listed as a noun. But then, there are phrases like "majority
vote" and "majority verdict" in these dictionaries, which seem like
adjectives. Considering all of the above, your explanation that
"majority" is an adverb seems logical to me(I just can't seem to find it
anywhere in the dictionary!).

t.h.

 

[Academic Writing]

Thanks for including the sentence th.19. Your interpretation of the meaning is correct and the usage is common from what I have seen.

Nouns can be used as adjectives (attributive nouns). I should have mentioned that in my previous post because I think I gave the impression that a compound modifier needs to contain an adjective, which of course isn't the case. Perhaps majority is an attributive noun here and the hyphen is just omitted from "majority-black" by convention.

In any case, your understanding of the meaning is correct.

 

[Tdol]

Which of the following does this phrase indicate?

(a) the population as a whole, the majority of which is white
(b) the majority of the white population​

To me, it means something slightly different: the white population, who are the majority.

 

[th.19]

Thank you for the reponses, to the both of you.

Mr./Ms. Tdol, thank you for your insight. I actually hadn't thought of that interpretation
before, but it does seem perfectly plausible. And in the sentence above, it does seem
to fit to better. Maybe the meaning could change slighty depending on the context of the
sentence?

th.19