The English AS…AS… Comparative Construction And Its Chinese Rendering

The English as…as…construction is an important form for thecomparison of equality,to which there is no single equivalent construction inChinese．Therefore,an exploration of the meanings and uses by the as…as…construction,and their expression in Chinese is important and necessary toboth language learning and translation．Based on a comprehensive description of the syntactic,semantic andpragmatic features of the English as…as…construction,this thesis aims tolook for the nearest equivalent forms in Chinese to the English as…as…construction,and to further explore the appropriate contexts in which theseChinese forms are used．To facilitate discussion,comparison in this thesisdistinguishes between stative and dynamic comparison,and betweenhomogeneous and heterogeneous comparison．The major conclusions arrived at from the present study are as follows:When the English as…as…construction is used in stative andhomogeneous comparison,the meanings it expresses have to be realizedrespectively into the Chinese gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) and theyou…name…(有…那么…) construction in different contexts．Generallyspeaking,in affirmative sentences,when expressing"equal degree",theas…as…construction equals the Chinese gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…)construction,and when expressing"equaling degree",it is equivalent to theyou…name…(有…那么…) construction in Chinese．In negative sentences,where the English as…as…construction takes the form of not as…as…,itsmeaning is normally conveyed by the Chinese meiyou…name…(没有…那 么…) construction,which is the negative form of the you…name…(有…那么…) construction,instead of by the gen…buyiyang…(跟…不一样…) orbugen…yiyang…(不跟…一样…) construction,which are the two negativeforms of the gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) construction．And when used ininterrogative sentences,the as…as…construction also has to be transformedinto the Chinese you…name…(有…那么…) construction rather than into thegen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) construction,and the answers to an as…as…construction in an interrogative sentence are accordingly the positiveyou…name…(有…那么…) and the negative meiyou…name…(没有…那么…) construction in Chinese．When it is used for dynamic comparison,however,the Englishas…as…construction is no longer equivalent to the gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) or the you…name…(有…那么…) construction,neither of which isused for dynamic comparison．Instead,it is often rendered into the Chinesecorrelative construction duo…duo…(多…多…)．The English as…as…construction is used to express heterogeneouscomparison as well．Limited by their syntax,the Chinese constructions forcomparison of equality,namely the gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) andyou…name…(有…那么…) construction,cannot be used for heterogeneouscomparison,either．Therefore,heterogeneous comparison as by the Englishas…as…construction must find its expression in some other Chinese formsthan the gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) or you…name…(有…那么…)construction．The thesis consists of six chapters．Chapter One is a brief introduction tothe whole thesis．Chapter Two deals with comparison as a universal semanticconceptual category,focusing on some basic concepts and terms that are necessary to our discussion．Chapter Three is intended as a comprehensivedescription of the English as…as…construction in terms of its syntax,semantics,and pragmatics．To parallel with the preceding chapter,ChapterFour is devoted to a detailed description of the syntax,semantics,andpragmatics of the Chinese comparative constructions of equality,i．e．gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) and you…name…(有…那么…)．Based on theprevious discussions,Chapter Five proceeds to make a comparison betweenthe English comparative construction as…as…and its Chinese counterparts,i．e．gen…yiyang…(跟…一样…) and you…name (有…那么…),which isfurther followed by a discussion of the Chinese translation of the Englishas…as…construction．Chapter Six serves as a brief summary of the majorconclusions arrived at in this thesis．...