英语“A is N times more than B”的倍数关系及其可接受性

An Analysis of “A is N times more than B” and its Acceptance

早在上世纪五十年代,学者就"A is N times more than B"的意义展开争论。目前一些权威词典对该表达的理解还未取得一致。本研究利用语料库搜索相关表达并根据上下文或背景资料来进行分析,得出的结论为:1)如果N是比1大的倍数,被广泛接受的理解应该是"A比B多N-1倍";2)如果N times替换为小于1的分数或百分数,理解为"A比B多+百分数/分数";3)如果N是表示模糊或夸张概念,可以直接理解为"A比B多N倍"。通过该表达在语料库中出现的频数和其他两种常用倍数表达句式的频数进行比较,发现虽然被定性为"歧义"结构,但是该表达在不同文体中仍然被较广泛使用。

As early as in the 1950s, an argument about the meaning of the construction ＂A is N times more than B＂ occurred among linguists. Until now, grammar books and dictionaries have not achieved consensus on this matter. This paper analyzes the sample sentences with this construction obtained from BNC and COCA conditional search, determining their meanings based on the context and background information. The findings are： 1） people tend to use ＂N times more than＂ to mean ＂N times as...as＂ when N is a number larger than 1; 2） if N is a number smaller than l, like a fraction or a percentage, it doesn＇t cause ambiguity; 3） if N is large enough to denote vagueness or exaggeration, both N and N - 1 are applicable to denote the same meaning. This expression was defined as ＂ambiguous＂ and ＂grammatically incorrect＂, but it is widely used in different genres and accepted by native speakers.