Clauses of Manner and Comparison

Sub-clauses of manner and comparison characterise the action of the principal clause by comparing it to some other action. Patterns of this sort are synsemantic in their value. Sometimes the implication of

¹ See: O. Jespersen. Essentials of English Grammar. London, 1933, p. 372.

comparison seems quite prominent, in other cases the clause is clearly one of manner.

The meaning of comparison makes itself quite evident in cases like the following:

You can lead men, I am sure, and there is no reason why you should not succeed at anything you set your hand to, just as you have succeeded in grammar. (London)

It followed inevitably upon the work, as the night follows upon the day. (London)

She was not exactly as daring as she seemed, but she loved to give that impression. (Dreiser)

In patterns like She did it as best as she could the implication of comparison is hardly felt at all.

The conjunction as has a wide and varied range of structural meanings. It is often used to introduce sub-clauses of time and cause, and it is only the context that makes the necessary meaning clear.

Further examples of sub-clauses of comparison are:

His father's face, dusky red, twitching as if he were going to cry, and words baking out that seemed rent from him by some spasm in his soul. (Galsworthy)

And all that passed seemed to pass as though his own power of thinking or doing had gone to sleep. (Galsworthy)