Learn English – Using “largely” to mean “significantly”. Which is correct

meaningword-choice

I have a question concerning usage of the word "largely". While proof-reading a text written by a colleague* I saw a phrase similar to the following:

"Because of these advantages, technique X largely contributed to the understanding of Y."

My gut feeling was that this doesn't convey the intended meaning of "X contributed a lot to Y", but rather "X mainly contributed to Y, and that's the most it ever did."

He came up with examples that seemed to confirm his use of the word, but most of them were English-language websites of non-English-speaking companies. My own Google research was somewhat inconclusive: some instances came up, but again with a large bias towards non-native speakers.

Which is right?

*Both of us are native German speakers.

EDIT: Perhaps I should clarify that I do not fear the original sentence, in its context, might be actually misunderstood in the way I suggested, just that it would stand out as improper use of the adverb, and break the flow of reading.

Best Answer

I share your disagreement with your colleague. largely has two common meanings:

  1. Mostly (¨for the most part¨)
  2. On a large scale

The first meaning is entirely inappropriate, because it is talking about the distribution of activity across the available options.

Largely it contributed to the understanding of Y but it also, at times, turned up new insights into problem Z.

So this is about how much of X´s application contributed to Y and how much it did other things.

The other meaning of largely also does not help, because while it does say that X contributed on a large scale, it does not say how that compares to any other input that may help with Y. For all we know, everything related to Y may be done on a large scale; it may simply be a big task however you approach it. It would be much better to phrase this in a way that clearly shows the importance of the contribution:

... technique X contributed very significantly to the understanding of Y

... technique X was the principal contributor to the understanding of Y

... technique X has been crucial to improving the understanding of Y

Any of those would emphasis the key contribution made by X and remove the risk of ambiguity. They are also more idiomatic.

That said, largely would work if the subject and object in the phrase were inverted:

... the understanding of Y was largely improved by technique X.

With it this way round, the mostly meaning of largely becomes appropriate, because it shows that X is the principal contributor.

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