A Comarison of Limitative Expressions in Japanese and English: "As··· as" Constructions in English and suru-kagiri and suru-dake in Japanese

It is observed in English composition classes that Japanese students often use idiomatic expressions like "as ... as one can/possible", "as long as" or "as far as" to translate Japanese limitative phrases suru-dake or suru-kagiri. But some of the English sentences which are produced using these English expressions are inappropriate. We compare the English sentences using "as ... as one can/possible" and "as ... as one want /like" with the Japanese adverbial clauses which have -dake, and discuss a parallelism seen in the English structure with the comparative of equality and the Japanese clause with -dake. We also tried to analyze the English sentences with "unless" and "as far/long as" to know the proper equivalents which correspond to the Japanese adverbial with -kagiri, considering such factors as 'scope', 'limit' and 'duration' given by the English verbs employed in the structures. VERB -kagiri　　　→　 IF S + V 　　　　　　　　　　　AS FAR AS S + V 　　　　　　　　　　　AS LONG AS S + V 　　　　　　　　　　　OTHERS VERB NOT -kagiri　→　IF S + V NOT 　　　　　　　　　　　UNLESS S + V 　　　　　　　　　　　AS LONG AS S + V NOT 　　　　　　　　　　　OTHERS本稿は、言語文化学会第9回大会（平成9年10月10日、於東海女子短期大学）における口頭発表の内容に、加筆・訂正を施したものである。 本稿は、平成9年度大阪女子短期大学研究助成費の交付を受けて行った研究成果の一部である