I like your otherness

[Ador]

Do these sentences have same meaning?

1. I like your otherness.
2. I like your being different from others.

 

[tedmc]

I think they mean the same but #2 is far more common.

 

[Tarheel]

I would probably say:

I like it that you're different from other people.

 

[jutfrank]

Sentence 1 is fine.

Sentence 2 sounds awful to me. It's unnatural, and so needs rephrasing. (See Tarheel's suggestion above.)

Anyway, if you're asking about meaning, then yes, they mean essentially the same thing.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

That's fine, Some would write 'you' rather than 'your'. Both forms are acceptable. Some prefer 'to' or 'than' to 'from'. Don't worry about it.

My preferences are 'your' and 'from', but that's personal. I don't claim they are better.

I've never heard to used that way. Is it a Britishism?

I'd use your and from, too.

 

[GoesStation]

I've never heard to used that way. Is it a Britishism?

Yes. One thing can be different to another in British English.

 

[Yankee]

Do these sentences have same meaning?

1. I like your otherness.
I would not expect to use or hear "otherness" in any context. But if I were to hear it, I think it would be used in a humorous sense and my reaction would probably be "Huh?".
2. I like your being different from others.
OK. But you would hear "than" frequently used in place of "from"

Y

 

[Tdol]

I wouldn't use the first- I mostly see otherness nowadays used in the context of negative perception of people of minority ethnicities.

 

[Tarheel]

The word "otherness" introduces a new concept to me. (It seems like something you'd see in a science fiction novel.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The word "otherness" introduces a new concept to me. (It seems like something you'd see in a science fiction novel.)

It's a nice word, though! I consider it a welcome addition.

 

[Tdol]

I've never heard to used that way. Is it a Britishism?

I was taught that different than was plain wrong, and from was preferable to to. That's the trouble with grammar police- they lack consistency. Use any of them. :up:

 

[Tdol]

The word "otherness" introduces a new concept to me. (It seems like something you'd see in a science fiction novel.)

It's done the rounds of philosophy for a long time, but has become better known in recent years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_(philosophy)

 

[jutfrank]

I was taught that different than was plain wrong, and from was preferable to to. That's the trouble with grammar police- they lack consistency. Use any of them. :up:

While we're on the subject, I'll take the liberty of expressing my own feelings about this issue (though it really should be a separate thread).

similar to
different from

This pairing has a nice contrast, since it seems to me to suggest that similarity has a sense of 'towardness' and difference a sense of 'awayness', which I really like. This is the pairing that I use, and which I teach learners to use.

similar to
different to

This is an alternative pairing, which is very common to speakers of British English. It makes some sense to me, and at least has consistency going for it.

similar to
different than

This is an alternative pairing, very common to speakers of American English. It makes little sense to me on an analytic level. When I hear learners use different than, I often correct them, despite it being quite natural. I can't stand it, because I can't get my head around it.

One complicating factor here is that sometimes than connects to a following clause, as opposed to a noun phrase:

a) It was very different than I expected. :?:
b) It was different from I expected. :cross:

I don't think any members would argue that (b) is ungrammatical, but I wonder what proportion would consider a) as grammatical.

 

[Tdol]

I wouldn't use either- I'd go for from what I expected.