关于no more + 形容词 + than这一结构的意思

A is no more＋形容词＋than＋B 意为“A和B都不…”

比如：

[1] He is no taller than I.= He is as short as I

[2] This room is no cleaner than that one.= This room is as dirty as that one.

这种说法是有依据的，比如：

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章振邦《新编高级英语语法》p682

[3] Mary is no wiser than Jane.

句子含义侧重于玛丽和简一样不聪明，也就是说一样笨。

no better than = as bad as

no wiser than = as stupid as

no richer than = as poor as

no bigger than = as small as

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R. Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 15.70

When more is an adverb , no more ... than has special implications.

Consider:

[3] Rachel is no more courageous than Saul .

The sentence implies that both Rachel and Saul are not courageous . Here are some further examples:

[4] Tom is no more athletic than he ever was. [‘Tom is not athletic, any more than he ever was athletic’]

[5] I can no more apologize than I could kneel to them.

[6] I would no more think of hitting a student than I would a policeman.

No more ... than has the same meaning when more modifies a tradable noun:

[7] She is no more a fool than you . [‘She is not a fool, any more than you are’, ‘She is not more foolish...’]

[8] They are no more scholars than my baby . [‘They are no more scholarly ...’]

The rhetorical effect of the construction is not so much to make a comparison as to intensify the negation. That effect is most obvious when the comparison is absurd.

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但对于下面如此的句子：

[9] John is no more stupid than his brother -- they simply cant be more stupid.

[10] Im no more intelligent than the next guy. Im just more curious.

假如把[9]中的no more stupid than讲解为as intelligent as，而把[10]中的no more intelligent than讲解为as stupid as，句子的意思就非常荒谬了。

[9]的意思是说John和他兄弟都愚蠢至极，没哪个比哪个更蠢这个说法，更不表示Both of them are not stupid；而[10]中爱因斯坦也不过只不过想强调自己不比其他人更聪明，并没The next guy is stupid.的潜台词。这两个句子都是经过不少母语者验证过的，并没语法上的问题。

如此的句子非常不错地说明了一点问题：no more + adjective + than如此的结构在没语境的状况下，并未必要根据1中的说法来理解，而可能有其它的意思。

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下面是一道专四题：

This idea is no more creative than that one. This sentence means that:

A. Both the ideas are creative.

B. This idea is less creative than that one.

C. Both the ideas arent creative.

D. The idea is as creative as that one.

【参考答案】C

【分析】no more ... than为固定词组，意为和...一样不...，表示否定两者。注意与not more ... than区别开来，指不如....，表示否定前者，一定后者。

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大家将这个问题拿去咨询母语者，得到的回复是如此的：

英国伦敦lingobingo:

It doesnt really mean any of those options. It means what it says.

This idea is no more creative than that one.

This new idea is not any more creative than the old one.

The old idea is creative. So is the new one -- but its no more creative. Theres nothing to choose between them

英国伦敦Jimbo_Disco:

It doesnt necessarily mean that neither is creative -- it just means that they are both on an equal level of creativity -- they could both be extraordinary creative, or they could be averagely ceative, or not at all creative.

美国东北部Roxxxannne:

The difference between

A) these ideas are on an equal level of creativity and

B) this idea is no more creative than that one is often in the context on which they are used.

B is a negation of the implied comparison that this idea is more creative than that one.

The same is true for shes no slimmer than I was at her age. This is a negation of the implied comparison that she is more slim than I was at her age.

Both sentences mean the same thing: these ideas or our bodies are equally creative or equally slim, as others have said.

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而对于下面这两句话：

[11] Drinking juice is no better than drinking soda.

[12] Drinking juice is not better than drinking soda.

母语者的评价是:

美国科罗拉多州owlman5:

Saying Drinking juice is no better than drinking soda makes perfect sense when you are saying that soda quenches thirst just as well as juice does.

美国阿肯色州Forero:

Both sentences deny that drinking juice might be better than drinking soda, so both may express the same objective reality.

But there is a difference of nuance: Not better compares reality to better and says it is not so, that drinking juice may be worse than or equally as good as drinking soda, but no better compares reality to much better or a little better and is not really concerned about better compared to worse.

The difference in nuance is the same whether no/not better means no/not better for quenching thirst, no better an idea/not a better idea, no/not better nutritionally, or something else.

The sentences can of course be used ironically, sarcastically, or whatever, but that has to be determined from the context and tone of voice. It is not apparent in the wording of either sentence.

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甚至还有些母语者直接反驳了Quirk书中的说法：

[3] Rachel is no more courageous than Saul .

The sentence implies that both Rachel and Saul are not courageous .

英国伦敦Jimbo_Disco:

No, it doesnt - it simply implies that Rachel and Saul are on an equal level of courageousness, which could be anything from extremely courageous to not courageous at all. Sometimes the problem with grammar books is that they dont always reflect actual contemporary usage of the language! Often with English there is a huge difference between what is grammatically correct and idiomatically correct, which must be so annoying for learners!

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除此之外还有不少母语者的看法，大家就不详细列举。总之，他们的看法大概是如此：

not more ... than强调less .... than or equally ... as而no more ... than一般是对于much better, a little better之类怎么看的否定，一般强调almost the same。

no more ... than可以修辞性地表示both are not...，但并非说no more ... than都表示both are not...，具体含义需要依据语境确定。

有些母语者觉得no more ... than和not more ... than并没非常大有什么区别，而且他们倾向于用no more ... than。



大家觉得这一点十分要紧。国内现在对于no more ... than的理解好像已经固化为both are not...。假如根据如此的理解，就会把[9][10]翻译成：

[9] 约翰和他的兄弟都不蠢 --- 他们都蠢得不可以再蠢了。

[10] 我和别的人都非常愚笨。我只不过更有好奇心罢了。

这种翻译显然是成问题的。这里应该理解为：

[9] 约翰并不比他的兄弟蠢 -- 他们都蠢得不可以再蠢了。

[10] 我不比别的人聪明。我只不过更有好奇心罢了。



赵振才还在《英语容易见到问题解答大词典》第963页做出过如此的答疑：

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【问】

This book is no more expensive than that one.

[原译] 这本书并不比那本贵。（《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》，商务印书馆，p994）

从译文看，no more expensive than和not more expensive than是毫无不同的。是如此吗？

【答】

从结构上看，no more expensive than与no better than是相同的，因此，其含义在于强调expensive的反面性质——“实惠”。译文未把这层含义翻译出来。究其缘由是译者忽视了not more expensive than与no more expensive than之间的语义差别，请对比：

John is not more diligent than his brother. 约翰没他兄弟用功。

John is no more diligent than his brother. 约翰跟他兄弟一样不需要功。

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大家觉得，词典的原译是准确而没偏见的，而赵振才的理解是片面的。见下面朗文词典中的说法：

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 词条more:

[13] Selling goods abroad is no more difficult than selling to the home market.



不了解各位老师的建议怎么样呢？



觉得no more...than...不等于not more...than...并不是中国人的创造或编译错误，这是夸克的看法。以下为夸克的《大全》的论述，看法明确，毫不含糊：

15.70 When more is a determinative or a head of a noun phrase - functions and
in 15.69 - the unit no more than is synonymous with only as many
as in countable contexts or with only as much as in noncountable
contexts :
Paul has no more friends than I have. [. . . only as many as. . .]
I have no more money than you have. [ . . . only as much as. . .]
Ted got no more than he needed. [ . . . only as many
as . . .]

She said no more than we expected. [ . . . only as much as. . .]

But when more is an adverb , as in the
other function types in 15.69, no more . . . than has special implications.
Consider:
Rachel is no more courageous than Saul .
The sentence implies that both Rachel and Saul are not courageous . Here are some further
examples :
Tom is no more athletic than he ever was. [Tom is not athletic, any
more than he ever was athletic.]
I can no more apologize than I could kneel to them.
I would no more think of hitting a student than I would a policeman.
No more. . . than has the same meaning when more modifies a gradable noun:
She is no more a fool than you . [She is not a fool, any more than
you are, She is not more foolish . . .]

They are np more scholars than my,pby . [They are no more
scholarly. . .]

The rhetorical effect of the construction is not so much to make a comparison
as to intensify the negation. That effect is most obvious when the comparison
is absurd :
Hes no mbre your friend than Im your mother.
Not any more than is an emphatic variant of no more . . . than:
Paul hasnt any more friends than I have. [only as many as. . .]

Rachel isnt any more courageous than Saul . [Rachel isnt
courageous, any more than . . .]
Not more . . . than, on the other hand, is different from both no more. . . than
and not any more . . . than when more is an adverb or modifies a gradable

Rachel is not more courageous than Saul .

This last sentence allows for the possibility that Rachel is less courageous
than Saul. It may also be merely a denial sentence in response to Rachel is
more courageous than Saul .
Similar distinctions apply to no Iess than, not any less than, and
not less than, except that the double negative is less common and as a
consequence the distinctions are somewhat blurred.



Huddleston等著 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language（剑桥英语语法） 比较结构一章的4.5Comparative idioms and reanalysis一节有如下论述：（P 1133）

No/any more than + comparative clause

[33] i The horses were no more on parade than was their driver.

ii Kim wouldnt do anything prematurely or in bad taste any more than Pat would.

More in this construction is in modifier function, but the usual degree meaning has effectively been lost. We dont interpret [i] as a comparison between the degree/extent to whch the horses were on parade and that to which their driver was: it can be glossed without a degree modifier as The horses werent on parade, just as their driver wasnt. The difference between this and the ordinary comparison may be fairly slight: This prospect did not please Mrs. King any more than did the possibility that her daughter might marry a Bohemine. The literal interpretation compares degrees of pleasinig , whereas the idiomatic one says that neither the prospect nor the marriage possibility pleased Mrs. King . Where the subordinate clause expresses an obviously false proposition, the rhetorical effect is to emphasise the negatives: Social invention did not have to await social theory any more than the use of the warmth of a fire had to await Lavoisier.



综观夸克和Huddleston的有关论述，大家可以看出，夸克觉得no more...than...结构中假如more为副词或则为曲折式比较级er, 则为修辞性使用方法，表示否定意义，即neither... nor...的意思，不是普通的比较结构。所以，no more... than...不同于 not more...than....后者仅仅表示比较意义。

而Huddleston则觉得，no more... than... 除去表示比较意义外，还可以是比较习语。作为比较习语的no more... than...已经不是字面上的比较意义了，而是强调否定意义。换句话说，Huddleston并没否定no more...than...仍然大概表示比较意义，而不是不是定。当从句表示的意思显然不成立时，则no more...than为比较习语，表示否定意义。

比如下句：

The whale is no more a fish than the horse is.

= The whale is not a fish, just as the horse is not.



WR网站部分老外否认no more...than...的修辞性使用方法，觉得no more... than...与not more... than...同义，这种认识是肤浅的。

国内语法书依据夸克的看法，把no more...than...结构都觉得是修辞性使用方法，不承认这种结构也可以表示普通比较意义，显然与语言实质应用状况是不符的。

我觉得《剑桥语法》的看法是可取的，即no more... than...除去普通的比较使用方法外，还可能是习语使用方法，即修辞性使用方法，表示否定意义，特别是在比较分句内容显然不成立的状况下。

另外，You are no cleverer than me. 假设这是修辞性使用方法，句子则等于：You are not clever, just as Im not. Neither you nor I am clever. 但，not clever 并不等于stupid。not clever可以是不聪明，但也未必笨。不可以把这个修辞性使用方法翻译成，You are as stupid as me. 除非特定状况如，You are no taller than Wu Dalang. 武大郎是个矮子，这是大家都知道的，这个句子才能讲解为 You are as short as Wu Dalang.