Equal Comparison
How does a language say that two things match in degree?
English needs two little words for it: as tall as her mother. The commonest arrangement worldwide uses just one — French grande comme sa mère, Turkish annesi kadar uzun — and a smaller group puts the two people together and calls them equally tall. A few make a verb do the work, so that she reaches her mother in height. Across a 119-language survey, one arrangement is virtually unattested wherever the standard stands as a phrase of its own: a degree word with the standard left bare.
- 语义领域
- 比较
策略
A “like” word alone
[TALL] + LIKE + [STANDARD]The adjective stands as it is, and one marker introduces the person compared against: tall like her mother. This is the commonest arrangement in the world sample — 57 of 136 constructions. The marker is often the ordinary similative “like” (French comme, Babungo yaa), but it can be a dedicated equative word: Turkish kadar and Korean 만큼 attach to the standard and say “to the extent of”.
A degree word and a “like” word
AS + [TALL] + AS + [STANDARD]One word marks the degree, another the standard: English as … as, French aussi … que, German so … wie. This is the core European type, and it is not only European: Hiligaynon prefixes kasing- to the adjective, Mandarin sets 跟 before the standard and 一樣 before the adjective, Japanese uses 〜と同じくらい “to the same extent as”, Swahili sawa na “equal with”.
Both at once, equally
[X AND Y] + EQUALLY + [TALL]The two things being compared stand together as one subject, and a degree word does the rest: the twins are equally tall. Canela-Krahô in Brazil builds its equative this way; English and its neighbours have the same shape beside as … as, and Zay in Ethiopia does it with a verb, the two of them equalling each other in height. With both parties named at once there is no separate standard to mark, so the bare degree word is at home here.
A verb “reach”
[X] REACHES [Y] in heightA verb meaning “reach” or “equal” carries the comparison, and the standard is its object. In Malgwa the verb is the whole predicate: she reaches her father in growth. In Degema it follows an ordinary adjective as a second predicate: tall, reaching me. Mandarin 有…那麼高 “has her mother that tall” puts a have-verb in the same frame, and Japanese keeps a reach verb for the negative side alone: 及ばない, does not reach.
地理分布
每个圆点代表一个已记录的语言，颜色对应它所采用的策略。点击任意圆点可查看其具体形式。
Marker positions are approximate cultural centres — they are not territorial claims. Tiles: OpenFreeMap · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Dark tiles: © CARTO.
语言对比
| Language | Strategy | Expression | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
French Indo-European › Romance | A “like” word alone | grande comme sa mère | comme, the ordinary “like” |
Turkish Turkic › Oghuz | A “like” word alone | annesi kadar uzun | kadar “to the extent of” follows the standard |
Korean Koreanic | A “like” word alone | 엄마만큼 키가 크다 eomma-mankeum ki-ga keuda | 만큼 attaches to the standard like a case particle [需要来源] |
Japanese Japonic | A “like” word alone | 母のように背が高い haha no yō ni se ga takai | the similative のように pressed into equative service; the plainer equative is 〜と同じくらい |
English Indo-European › Germanic | A degree word and a “like” word | as tall as her mother | both as-words continue Old English eallswā “all so” |
French Indo-European › Romance | A degree word and a “like” word | aussi grande que sa mère | |
German Indo-European › Germanic | A degree word and a “like” word | so groß wie ihre Mutter | wie is the question word “how” |
Spanish Indo-European › Romance | A degree word and a “like” word | tan alta como su madre | |
Russian Indo-European › Slavic | A degree word and a “like” word | такая же высокая, как мать takaja že vysokaja, kak matʼ | такой “such” with the particle же, then как “how” |
Hungarian Uralic › Ugric | A degree word and a “like” word | olyan magas, mint az anyja | the demonstrative olyan “such” carries the degree |
Mandarin Chinese Sino-Tibetan › Sinitic | A degree word and a “like” word | 跟她媽媽一樣高 gēn tā māma yíyàng gāo | 跟 “with” marks the standard, 一樣 “same” the degree |
Japanese Japonic | A degree word and a “like” word | 母と同じくらい背が高い haha to onaji kurai se ga takai | と marks the standard, 同じくらい “the same extent” the degree; under negation ほど takes over: 母ほど高くない |
Hiligaynon Austronesian › Philippine | A degree word and a “like” word | si Pedro kasing-gwapo ni Juan | the prefix kasing- on the adjective carries the equative degree |
Swahili Atlantic-Congo › Bantu | A degree word and a “like” word | hodari sawa na Juma | sawa “equal” with na “with” |
Babungo Atlantic-Congo › Grassfields | A “like” word alone | we' yaa Làmbi | “strong like Lambi” — the ordinary similative yaa doing equative work |
English Indo-European › Germanic | Both at once, equally | the twins are equally tall | the one shape where a degree word needs no standard marker |
Canela-Krahô Macro-Jê › Jê | Both at once, equally | capi me kryt cati pipẽn | “Capi and Kryt big equal” — the two compared stand as one subject |
Russian Indo-European › Slavic | Both at once, equally | они одинаково высокие oni odinakovo vysokie | одинаково “identically” over a plural subject [需要来源] |
Degema Atlantic-Congo › Edoid | A verb “reach” | túl mé=ēn | “this child is tall, reaches me” — the reach verb follows an ordinary adjective |
Mandarin Chinese Sino-Tibetan › Sinitic | A verb “reach” | 有她媽媽那麼高 yǒu tā māma nàme gāo | 有 “have”, in its extent reading, takes the standard as its object; most at home in questions and negatives [需要来源] |
例句
在「自然 / 直译 / 注释」之间切换，对比同一概念在各语言中的不同表达方式。
One sentence, language by language
The same comparison across the first two strategies: paired markers in English, French and German, a with-word and a same-word in Mandarin, an extent word in Japanese, Turkish and Korean.
She is as tall as her mother.
- 自然
- She is as tall as her mother.
Elle est aussi grande que sa mère.
- 自然
- She is as tall as her mother.
Sie ist so groß wie ihre Mutter.
- 自然
- She is as tall as her mother.
她跟她媽媽一樣高。
tā gēn tā māma yíyàng gāo.
- 自然
- She is as tall as her mother.
母と同じくらい背が高い。
haha to onaji kurai se ga takai.
- 自然
- As tall as her mother.
Annesi kadar uzun.
- 自然
- As tall as her mother.
엄마만큼 키가 크다.
eomma-mankeum ki-ga keuda.
- 自然
- As tall as her mother.
参考文献
- Göksel & Kerslake 2005 01Göksel, Aslı; Kerslake, Celia (2005).Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar.Routledge.
- Haspelmath & Buchholz 1998 02Haspelmath, Martin; Buchholz, Oda (1998).Equative and similative constructions in the languages of Europe.In van der Auwera, Johan (eds.), Adverbial Constructions in the Languages of Europe. Mouton de Gruyter. 277–334. doi:10.1515/9783110802610.277
- Haspelmath & the Leipzig Equative Constructions Team 2017 03Haspelmath, Martin; the Leipzig Equative Constructions Team (2017).Equative constructions in world-wide perspective.In Treis, Yvonne; Vanhove, Martine (eds.), Similative and Equative Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective. John Benjamins. 9–32. doi:10.1075/tsl.117.02has
- Henkelmann 2006 04Henkelmann, Peter (2006).Constructions of equative comparison.
- Li & Thompson 1981 05Li, Charles N.; Thompson, Sandra A. (1981).Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar.University of California Press.
- Makino & Tsutsui 1986 06Makino, Seiichi; Tsutsui, Michio (1986).A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.The Japan Times.
- Stassen 2013 07Stassen, Leon (2013).Comparative Constructions.In Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, chapter 121. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://wals.info/chapter/121
- Treis & Vanhove 2017 08Treis, Yvonne; Vanhove, Martine (2017).Similative and Equative Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective.John Benjamins.
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