Using に to make a comparison

Question

I came across the following sentence in an old Japanese text a while ago and am wondering about the use of に here:

工場の規模極めて小さく且使用機械不完全なる為め、製品の品質本邦產品に劣り。

Now I am pretty sure that the に here is used to make a comparison. But I have never seen に used like this. So is this use of に to make a comparison common?

Common I don't know but when you compare two things you are confronting one **in** the other. You can also think of it as に対して劣り (inferior against the other) — vdegenne, Nov 07 '22 at 17:08
Thank you @[Oran Matheus](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/54992/) for (re?) entering the relevant Japanese sample sentence. — Eiríkr Útlendi, Nov 19 '22 at 09:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 07 '22 at 23:03

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It is rather that 劣{おと}る (and its opposite 勝{まさ}る/優{まさ}る) takes に-phrases. They correspond literally inferior/superior to. So に is used for comparison as commonly as to is used for comparison.

I assume 劣り is a typo for 劣る.

answered Nov 07 '22 at 23:03

sundowner

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Thanks! And no 劣り is not a typo. Might just have to do with this being an early 20th century text. – Nov 08 '22 at 00:14
@Polsci54, you can upvote the answer and mark it as resolved if it solved your question. – jarmanso7 Nov 08 '22 at 00:22
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@Polsci54 I see, then it should be a [体言止め](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/14529/45489). – sundowner Nov 08 '22 at 03:09
@sundowner It's just present tense of 劣る verb without any formal ending (e.g. ます). Not a typo, especially if the text is talking about technical things. – vdegenne Nov 08 '22 at 13:38
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@vdegenne, the 連用形 of a verb has no tense. – Eiríkr Útlendi Nov 18 '22 at 23:00

Using に to make a comparison

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