Bombs

MollyB   Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:59 am GMT
Forgetting your prescritivist head, if you have one, for a moment, what would you say is the difference in meaning here, and does the second example sound odd in some way?

Luckily, the bomb landed between the houses.
? Luckily, the bomb landed among the houses.

Also, how many houses in each sentence and what would be their distribution in your mind?
John   Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:49 am GMT
"Between" the houses implies two houses and neither were hit directly.

"Among" the houses implies more than two houses were there but the bomb did not necessarily hit "between" any two of them. "Among the houses" could mean that at least one of them was hit, but your use of "luckily" would proably mean that no structure was hit directly.
M56   Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:08 am GMT
< but your use of "luckily" would proably mean that no structure was hit directly. >

Or that the speaker felt it was OK for the houses to be hit.