Yeah Im the same way. Rather than a rule, just give me some sentences to look at and what they mean and I’ll work it out in my head.
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That’s one of the ways ほど is used, and ほど（程）is ultimately very similar to 程度:
Also, this site explaining a Korean grammar point for Japanese people lists the following expressions together under the meaning section:
- 意味 ：「〜するだけ、〜するくらい、〜する分だけ、十分に 〜する」
The explanation provided by your link is definitely much better, and it’s unfortunate that such information doesn’t seem to come up easily for free when this structure is looked up in Japanese, but I wouldn’t dismiss the words raised in the definition I posted as completely unrelated to this usage, particularly since they’re similar enough to be listed as explanations for a single grammar point in Korean. (And no, there was unfortunately nothing like that explanation in the free monolingual dictionary definitions online, or I would have chosen it instead.)
That being said, thanks for sharing that explanation.
Bun has a usage similar to hodo for sure. It also has usages that aren’t at all the same. This is one of those cases. Put frankly it’s just wrong to think of it like hodo in this case. What you posted is not hodo alone. Ba hodo is very different from hodo by itself.
Fair enough, but then correct me if wrong: as far as I can tell, in these sentences
分 can be replaced by 程 alone. I can envisage a progressive aspect for the first sentence, but in that case, I don’t see why だ is used instead of なる. For the second, I don’t think there’s a progressive aspect.
Separately,
what would this sentence mean? ‘The people outside were so cold that they would feel warm if they just had sunlight?’ I’m not sure which usage of 分 that is, but it doesn’t seem to contain the notion of ‘proportional increase’ either.
The rest of the examples raised earlier seem to fit the explanation from your link, but what about these three?
I’m at work so sorry for the slow reply and lack of Japanese text and quoting.
The last sentence has a few points worthy of note.
First I read it as soto no hou rather than kata. Second, you’re not parsing it right because you’re assuming it’s self contained. Anyone who has read honzuki can confirm, but when I read that it comes across as the author is calling something else Samui. Based off soto no hou, the Samui thing is something not outside but rather inside probably. Otherwise the sentence doesn’t really make sense to me. @seanblue and @Arzar33 can give context since they should both have the book. also worth noting that bun in that sentence feels a bit different. It’s more referring to the amount/existence in the first place, so it’s actually probably the closest one to hodo out of all that you posted.
For the second sentence, honestly I wouldn’t think too much about it if I saw it with hodo, but it definitely has a different nuance. Hodo would make me feel like 活気に溢れている is thanks to the busyness, when that’s not always the case and it would be implying a bit more of a cause and effect nuance which may not be intended. Especially because to me, kakki has a kinda positive connotation in my mind, whereas isogashii isn’t always a good thing. So it may be changing the meaning in an unintended way by making it hodo.
For the first one, definitely can’t switch that one imo.
EDIT: @Jonapedia maybe with extra context and this explanation the third one will make more sense for you 【〜がある分、〜がない分】とはどういう意味ですか？ - 日本語に関する質問 | HiNative
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Exactly. You can’t just go replacing 分 with ほど, because ほど makes the second clause the main one and the first one its consequence (“thanks to it”).
So, 「仕事場は活気に溢れているほど、 忙しい」would read something like “Work is so busy it’s overflowing with liveliness”, what clearly has a different meaning when compared with the original, which reads more like “To the same amount work is overflowing with liveliness, it’s also very busy”.
The same could be said for the other sentences. Even when the replacement is grammatically possible, it does change the meaning. 「彼女は工房で商人と接しているほど、計算も得意だ」 would read something like “She is so good at calculations she is contact with the merchants at the workshop” (???), as if being good at math is a requisite to be able to talk with them or something. But the intended meaning is surely the other way around. Being in contact with merchants → becoming good at math (I assume they talk about money, numbers and such)
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Yeah it’s worth noting that while bun and hodo can share meanings and be related, replacing one with the other without changing the nuance or meaning at all is a pretty tall order. That goes for everything in Japanese.
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大正解.
@Jonapedia, sorry about that, I missed the first part of the sentence because it was behind a page break 
The whole sentence is much clearer:
人の気配がない倉庫はキンキンに冷えていて、外の方が太陽の光がある分暖かいと感じるほど寒い。
So what do you think is the nuance of 仕事場は活気に溢れている分、 忙しい。?
Btw, this evening I was talking with a native speaker about 分, because I encountered another sentence 夜ヒマになった分、食べてしまう so I asked them about it, and they immediately answered “uh ? it’s just because”. When I tried to probe a bit more (but there is already から or ので what’s the difference etc), they just said “I’m not sure, I never thought deeply about it”. Which is perfectly understandable, it’s super hard to think clearly about our own language on the spot. But I still find interesting that their very first reaction was “duh it’s just because”. Rereading Seanblue and my sentences with a plain “duh it’s just because” mindset while loosing finer nuance work actually very well ! 
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Translating it simply to “because” really does lose a lot of nuance in this case though.
Thanks for making the effort to reply as soon as possible. Honestly though, it’s OK: I took an unplanned nap. Staying up till the crack of dawn last night finally knocked me out. (Thankfully, I don’t have to work or go for classes at the moment.)
I’ve skimmed through the posts on this thread, including yours, and they’ve given me some food for thought. I’ll go read through the link you sent soon as well. However, I think I’m a little too tired right now, so I might try processing everything before bed or tomorrow morning. I really appreciate all the help though.
So Samui is a person or thing, and not the adjective we’re used to? (Again, I’ll probably think through all this properly tomorrow morning, but I appreciate all the explanations. Thanks.)
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No Samui is describing the space inside the warehouse.
It’s hard to tell something as subtle as nuance of such a barren sentence with 0 context, but my first impression is just that there was probably something that happened or in general the place of work in question is just in a prosperous period and it’s positively effected the energy and morale, but at the same time the workload has increased.
Total shot in the dark obviously, but that’s my impression without knowing anything else. If it’s off the mark, lemme know the context and I can maybe help more. If it’s on the mark, cool beans, 2 for 2.
Ah, OK, I misunderstood your earlier explanation. Got it. Thanks. I’ll go back to thinking about that sentence.
The part where 分 is relevant is just 「外（の方）が太陽の光がある分暖かい」, meaning outside is hot because of / proportional to the sunlight. Then that is combined with ほど as a contrast to describe the 倉庫 by saying that as much as it feels hot outside, it feels cold inside.
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Isn’t it instead that “as much as it is hot ouside (due to the sun), it’s cold with an almost warm feeling.” ?
( … 暖かいと感じるほど寒い )
Yeah, I came to roughly the same conclusion when I skimmed the sentence again. That is, once I had got the confusion surrounding 寒い out of the way.
I think that interpretation is a little self-contradictory, so it’s not that likely. In addition, if we interpret「… 暖かいと感じるほど寒い 」as a block the way you suggest, it should translate as ‘it’s so cold that one would feel it’s warm’. That doesn’t make sense.
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Not quite. Again in this case you can think of it like があることによって. So cold enough to feel like just the light from the sun is warm. Unless I’m severely mistaken, outside should definitely be cold too, it’s just that it’s so much colder in the warehouse that warmth could be felt outside thanks to the sunlight.
My understanding of Japanese is most probably lower than all of you, but I there is 暖かい in the sentence …
I (mis?)understand the whole sentence as:
“The 倉庫, are chilling cold, and as the light of the sun increases outside, they are almost-warmly-cold.”
Oh… キンキンに冷えていて could be the outside ? and with the light of the sun coming, the 倉庫 is of course cold, but almost warm ?
Or maybe, キンキンに冷えていて is before the sun starts lighting, then is just 寒い ?
I’m not familiar with があることによって, and now I’m lost again.
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No, you’ve got it the other way around my friend.
Did you check the link I posted earlier. I mentioned how this specific usage was different from the others and gave a little link to help jona out. Maybe after reading that it will help.
But if you have read the book, hopefully someone should be able to confirm that this takes place during winter or late fall when the outside is cold.