Comparative and contrastive analysis of French conjunctive expressions «autant que», «d'autant que and d'autant plus que» and their Spanish equivalents

Abstract

The article is an attempt of a semantic and syntactic analysis of French complex conjunctions autant que, d'autant que and d'autant plus que. The author undertakes to find out which means of conjunction can be regarded as their equivalents in Spanish. The research is based on the data provided by dictionaries and translations of French fiction and press into Spanish. The article defines the grammatical status and lexical meaning of the conjunctions autant que, d'autant que and d'autant plus que and their Spanish equivalents, analyzes the conditions of their functioning in speech, reveals common features and differences in the fields of syntagmatics and paradigmatics. The conjunction autant que can denote a variety of meanings and their shades: comparison, limitation, equivalence, condition, concession. In Spanish it corresponds to tanto como, como, cuanto, hasta donde, según lo que, en lo que, todo lo que and the combination a más po + infinitive, cuando, por mucho que. French verbless constructions containing autant que can be translated by Spanish constructions containing lo que, lo mismo que, el mismo + noun + que, al mismo tiempo. French conjunctions d'autant plus que and d'autant que correspond in Spanish to tanto más cuanto que, tanto más cuanto, tanto más que. These conjunctions serve to indicate additional motivation for the action described in the mainsentence. They introduce subordinate clauses expressing additional reason and operate within constructions consisting of three components: the motivated message, the main reason, and the additional reason.