英語as…as 片語初探

A Preliminary Study of English As…As Phrases

英語的as…as 片語經常出現，看似簡單其實不然。片語語意顯現它是一個表達 對等程度比較的連接詞，常連接兩個比較的物體或事件。進一步以句法角度檢視，發 現片語中第一個as 應該分析為是副詞，而第二個as 應該可以是補語連詞，這是啟發 自Dubinsky and Williams(1995)的分析，他們主張時間連接詞before 及after 應該分析 為補語連詞。由此，本研究主張英語的as…as 片語是一表達對等程度語意的片語， 可連接兩個比較的物體或事件，而不需要顯性的句法連接詞。這原本是語意的片語， 並不是一相連不可分的句法連接詞組，但某些as…as 的詞串經過語意隱喻的轉變後， 也可變化成句法上之連接詞。

As…as is a seemingly easy， yet complex， phrase in English. The semantic property of the phrase indicates that it is a conjunction showing a comparison of equivalence between two entities or two events. A scrutiny reveals that syntactically the first as should be an adverb in category and the second as can be analyzed as a complementizer， following the analysis of temporary conjunction of before and after. Given this， it is proposed that the as…as phrase is a semantic phrase indicating equivalent degree in comparison and therefore links two conjuncts of states or events for comparison. Due to this， there is no need for the overt syntactic conjunction inside this comparison construction. However， the later on metaphoric alternation of some particular as…as phrases affects their syntactic behavior and these as…as phrasal chunks can act as syntactic conjunctions.