Means of expressing approximating quantities in English and Armenian
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Abstract
The paper gives a cross-linguistic analysis of approximations in English and Armenian, particularly in the sphere of numerical
quantities. The study is carried out on two levels: semantic and structural. The comparative study shows that the three types
of approximators: non-specified, specified with the two subtypes as well as quasi-specified approximators singled out in the
paper as a third semantic type are widely represented both in English and Armenian. Semantically they are in most cases
identical. The differences concern English approximators under, odd, the suffix–ish which have no counterparts in Armenian.
Likewise, Armenian approximator haziv is not functionally analogous with the English semantic counterparts (hardly, barely)
which are normally not used to express approximating quantities in English. Some synonymous approximators both in English
and Armenian exhibit stylistic differences in their usage. The structural analysis shows that out of ten basic patterns that
approximators are constituents of four are identical in the related languages, the rest six patterns equally divided between
the compared languages exhibit specificity that is intrinsic to each of them.
Keywords: Approximation, approximating quantity, specified approximator, non-specified, quasi-specified, exact information,
imprecision, comparative study, differences, similarities
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