| 词组 | compare to, compare with |
| 释义 | compare to, compare with Our files contain slips from about 50 commentators who are all eager to explain the difference between compare to and compare with. Their basic rule is easy to state: when you mean "to liken," use compare to; when you mean "to examine so as to discover the resemblances and differences," use compare with. Raub 1897 put it more succinctly: "Compare with in quality, to for illustration." The real world of discourse, however, is not as tidy as the rule. Part of the problem can be seen in the initial summing up: how different is "liken" from "examine to discover resemblances"? Not very, and in practice compare is frequently used in such a way as to make the distinction between senses uncertain, a fact commented upon as long ago as Fowler 1926. Back in 1947 a Mr. Bernstein wrote a letter to the editor of Word Study, published by Merriam-Webster, objecting to a compare to that he thought should, on the basis of Fowler and Webster's Second, be compare with. The editor undertook an examination of the evidence then in the files and discovered considerable variance from the prescribed rule. He found no more than 55% observing the rule for the "liken" sense and an even split between with and to in the "examine" sense. (He also discovered that the basic distinction was first set down in the 1847 Webster unabridged.) How do things stand some 40 years later? Without attempting statistics, we think we can give you a clear notion by examining the citations a little differently than the Word Study editor did in 1947. First we will look at the active verb. For the "liken" sense, the basic rule prescribes compare to. Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII is frequently set forth as an example: • Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? —1609 Modern speakers and writers have not abandoned the rule: • I know Patrick doesn't care about being compared to anybody. He's his own self—Moses Malone, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Sunday Republican, 1 Dec. 1985 • Mr. Ridley is surely not just to compare what Henry did to convicted felons in 38 years of rule to what Hitler did to innocent civilians —Maureen Quilli-gan, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 11 Aug. 1985 • The deeds of modern heroes are constantly compared to those of Greek and Roman epic and legend —Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition, 1949 • They were blue, but a blue so deep that I can only compare it to the color of the night sky —Robert Penn Warren, Partisan Rev., Fall 1944 • ... to be compared to Homer passed the time pleasantly —William Butler Yeats, The Trembling of the Veil, 1922 Some writers—they are a minority—use with: • Though Irwin is often compared with both Chaplin and Keaton as a silent clown, he is actually closer in attitude to Harold Lloyd —Mel Gussow, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 1985 • ... the first poem in which images seen are compared with sounds heard —Stephen Spender, New Republic, 2 Feb. 1953 So when compare is an active verb used in the "liken" sense, the basic rule is more often observed than not. When compare is an active verb and used in the sense "examine so as to discover resemblances and differences," there is more variation in practice. Our citations show that more writers use with (as the basic rule prescribes) than use to, but the numerical difference between the majority and the minority is not as great as for the "liken" sense. Here are some examples from both groups: • That compares with a 6% year-to-year decline in the 1981 fourth quarter — Wall Street Jour., 6 May 1982 • This compares to an effective tax rate of 52.5 percent —Annual Report, Colgate-Palmolive Company, 1981 • Comparing himself physically with Keaton, he said, "My body is this sort of long spaghetti noodle and his was like a whippet." —Mel Gussow, New Yorker, II Nov. 1985 • ... of the other three only Susana could be compared to her ancestors in vital fiber —George Santayana, Persons and Places, 1944 • ... what is now called Humanism, of which I must here say something, if only to contrast it and compare it with the Aestheticism of Pater —T. S. Eliot, "Arnold and Pater," in Selected Essays, 1932 • ... she is often asked to compare the old theatre with the new —Current Biography, January 1968 We can conclude, then, that when compare is used as an active verb in the "examine" sense, the basic rule calling for with is more often observed than not, but quite a few writers use to. One other point should be mentioned: the possibility of uncertainty as to which sense of compare a writer has intended. Look at the Santayana quotation above—couldn't the sense be "liken" just as easily? Or look at this example: • Mr. Eliot compares them in their possible wide effectiveness with the present body of segregated intellectuals who now write only for each other —Lionel Trilling, Partisan Rev., September-October 1940 If compare can be used as an active verb in such a way that we cannot be sure which sense is intended, when compared is used as a detached past participle, sometimes introduced by as, it is much harder to try to distinguish between the prescribed to and with senses. Fowler 1926 was the first to take note of this fact. He puts it this way: Compared with, or to, him I am a bungler (this is a common type in which either sense is applicable). More recently we find James J. Kilpatrick observing: • I will never in my life comprehend the distinction between compared to and compared with. My ear hears nothing amiss in "This year's corn crop, compared to last year's," or in "This year's corn crop, compared with last year's." —Kilpatrick 1984 Our files show that with and to are used about equally after the past participle. In spite of Fowler's comment about either sense being applicable, most of the following examples, we think, you will find to be of the "examine for resemblances and differences" sense. • ... a million people will go abroad for a holiday this year, compared with 750,000 in 1952 —Vincent Mulchrone, quoting an unknown speaker in Punch, 8 July 1975 • Only 9 percent of American doctors are women, compared to 24 percent in Great Britain —Leonard Gross, McCall's, March 1971 • American text treatments are conservative, compared with ours —Allen Hütt, Newspaper Design, 2d ed., 1971 • So much of the action of hockey was freewheeling, imaginative, instinctive, as compared to football with its precise routes and exact assignments — George Plimpton, Sports Illustrated, 30 Jan. 1978 • ... political thinking in the United States is skewed sharply to the right as compared with the other Western democracies —Noam Chomsky, Columbia Forum, Winter 1969 • ... the house is luxurious compared to some of the cabins up the hollow —Robert Coles, Harper's, November 1971 • Sixty-two million people are now gainfully employed, compared with fifty-one million 7 years ago —Harry S. Truman, State of the Union Message, 7 Jan. 1953 • But that's just a minor difference compared to the major agreements on which we base present and future policy —Jimmy Carter, quoted in N.Y. Times, 14 Feb. 1980 • ... our flag officers and senior captains are old compared with those of other navies —Hanson W. Baldwin, Harper's, April 1941 • ... will have four armored, or tank, divisions, as compared to the single brigade ... available a year ago —Hanson W. Baldwin, Foreign Affairs, October 1940 • Compared with the earls and the actresses, the Knapweed-Knapweeds are numerous —Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree, 1937 • ... will not challenge a stag in possession of a harem if his rival's antlers are too big compared to his own —Julian Huxley, Yale Rev., Autumn 1943 • ... this is the third novelty in his work as compared with that of the past decade —Malcolm Cowley, New Republic, 7 Apr. 1941 • Compared to the language of Michelet... , Renan's prose is pale —Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station, 1940 • ... Europe's economy is doing quite nicely, thank you, compared with the years after the second world war —The Economist, 26 Apr. 1986 • Unemployment is low compared to that of other tribes —David Edmunds, Wilson Quarterly, New Year's 1986 • Compared with the fables, my own work is insignificant —Marianne Moore, quoted in Time, 24 May 1954 • ... you always seemed so firm to me compared to myself —E. B. White, letter, 13 Feb. 1972 We can conclude, then, that in 20th-century practice, the general rule of the handbooks is followed more often than not when compare is used as an active verb, but both with and to are used equally with the past participle. The rule can be looked upon as a guide that you may choose to observe if you wish to. Many writers obviously do not. There is one more point of interest. Fowler says that with the intransitive verb, only with is possible. The construction he gives as an example is a negative one. In modern practice, both with and to are used: • And while Mr. Wilson doesn't compare with Miss Murdoch, the metaphysical playfulness in his book reminds us of her —Anatole Broyard, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 9 Mar. 1986 • ... ham and bamboo shoots did not compare to those made at Ying's —Mimi Sheraton, N. Y. Times, 16 Dec. 1977 • For all-around dependability ... nothing else compares with a Cleveland —advt., Bookbinding and Book Production, June 1953 • Nothing compares to the actual handling of a multitude of concrete cases —Thomas F. McNally, Bulletin of the National Catholic Education Association, August 1949 • Not even the collapse of the Roman Empire compared with a calamity so serious —Henry Adams, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, 1904 • No other auto race in the U.S. quite compares to the Sebring grind—Time, 14 Mar. 1955 comparison 1. See absolute adjectives; absolute comparative; double comparison; implicit comparative; superlative of two. 2. Illogical comparison. Copperud 1970, 1980 notes that some people object to constructions like "the finback has the tallest spout of any whale" (R. C. Murphy, Log- book for Grace, 1947, cited in Bryant 1962) on the grounds that any includes the thing being compared in the group it is being compared with. This is rather subtle reasoning for everyday use, and it is little wonder that it is often ignored or unthought of. Bryant notes that such constructions have been used since Chaucer's time and can be found in informal and sometimes in formal prose. The one statistical study she mentions found the superlative with any about 30 percent of the time and the superlative with all—which is held to be more logical—about 70 percent of the time. • ... 13 years in that high office—the longest of any President—Boy's Life, May 1968 • ... the tallest of all the girls —Patricia Browning Griffith, Harper's, March 1969 • Bryant also notes the occasional use of the comparative in this construction—"a more intolerable wrong of nature than any which man has devised" (Reader's Digest, November 1957, cited in Bryant)—but finds it much less common than the same construction with any other in place of any. Most commentators who mention the problem recommend the use of any other. • Your father would probably remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President, better than any other —Boy's Life, May 1968 3. Phythian 1979 says that the word comparison should be followed by with and not by to. Comparison is indeed followed by with: • ... minor projects in comparison with the work he was doing —Current Biography, December 1967 • ... the English language was not fit to bear comparison with the learned languages of Europe —W. F. Bolton, A Short History of Literary English, 1967 • Poor in comparison with rich relatives on either side — Times Literary Supp., 22 Oct. 1971 • ... he considered himself a saint in comparison with Florabelle's mother —Erskine Caldwell, Tragic Ground, 1944 It is also, but somewhat less frequently, followed by to: • ... waspish by comparison to the cars he was accustomed to —Terry Southern, Flash and Filigree, 1958 • ... sales so pale and unpromising in comparison to those of the thirties —John Brooks, New Yorker, 27 Apr. 1957 • ... our own language is nothing special in comparison to other languages —Robert A. Hall, Jr., Leave Your Language Alone, 1950 Formerly of was used: • They who think everything, in comparison of that honor, to be dust and ashes —Edmund Burke, speech, 1780 • ... would be frail and light in comparison of ourselves —Thomas De Quincey, "The Vision of Sudden Death," 1849 Between is also used in constructions where both items being compared appear after comparison: • ... draws an interesting comparison between Mar-cion's rejection of the Old Testament and Bult-mann's existential approach —Times Literary Supp., 18 Jan. 1968 • ... there is little comparison between Michelangelo's Sonnets and his sculpture and paintings —René Wellek & Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 1949 |
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