Learn English – The precise meaning of “to have something more to do with somebody/something”

comparativescomparisonsphrase-meaning

There are other questions about the meaning of "to have something to do with somebody/something". My question here is about "to have something more to do with somebody/something". There is a sense of comparison in this phrase as in the following sentence:

The truth about genealogy is that, although you might believe it has something to do with history, it actually has something more to do with geography. Source

In the above sentence comparison follows the following pattern:

A has something to do with X, but it has something more to do with Y.

That much is clear. But my question is whether it also may mean comparison in the following pattern:

A has something to do with X, but B has something more to do with X.

Or otherwise put:

Compared to A, B has something more to do with X.

Best Answer

Your interpretation of the writer's intent is correct, but his grammar is dubious. Whereas something denotes a single undefined thing, it is countable and singular, and cannot not be modified by more. You can, however, say something else, but it would mean "some other thing", which is not the meaning intended. In order to make this sentence good English, omit the second instance of something:

The truth about genealogy is that, although you might believe it has something to do with history, it actually has more to do with geography.

By omission of the noun, the phrase to have to do lets the author imply an uncountable or plural object, such as things:

Genealogy has more things to do with geography than with history.

EDIT: Another fault in the original sentence is that its author sets the following two statements in opposition:

  1. genealogy has something to do with history and

  2. genealogy has more to do with geography,

whereas they not contradict each other. In order to justify although, the contrast must be more evident , e.g.:

Although you might believe that geology relies primarily on history, its reliance on geography is much stronger.

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