A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

200 Chapter 12 Grade and comparison

taller. And the negative Kim isn't as tall as Pat entails that Kim is SHORTER than

Pat, not simply that Kim's height is different (either lower or higher on the height

scale).

Similarly in [15ii]: Kim is at least as high on the energetic scale as Pat. As nor­

mally understood, energetic does not denote a quality that can be precisely

measured, as height can, so the issue of whether Kim and Pat are exactly equal

on this scale doesn't really arise.

Each of the examples in [15] contains two occurrences of as.

The first as is an adverb of degree, like more and less except that it can modify

determinatives: I had as much cash as you (contrast *1 had more much cash than

you).

The second as is a preposition, like than. As is used for equality, and than for

inequality.

In some contexts, primarily negatives, the adverb as is replaceable by so, and in

some familiar phrases it is omitted altogether:

[16] i It wasn 't so straii-htforward as I' d been led to expect.

ii The sea was f1gI as a pancake.

5 Non-scalar comparison

All the comparisons considered so far have been concerned with relative

positions on some scale - with relative degrees of some gradable property. There is

also a type of comparison where the issue is not a matter of relative degree but sim­

ply of identity or similarity. We call this non-scalar comparison. The prepositions

as and than are found here too, so we can generalise the contrast between equality

(marked by as) and inequality (marked by than):

[17] i EQUALITY

ii INEQUALITY

We went by the same route as we usually take.

%We went by a different route than we usually take.

The first expresses identity, the second non-identity, between the route we took

(on the occasion in question) and the route we usually take.

The % annotation indicates, as usual, that not all speakers use this construction (it

is somewhat more frequent in AmE). Some speakers would use a more complex

construction with from and an NP here: We went by a different route from the one we

usually take.

There are two items, however, that license a than complement for all speakers,

namely other and else:

[18] i There must be some other way of doing it than this.

ii Anyone else than you would have complained.

We only chose diff erent in [17ii] because it permits a more direct contrast with same.