Comparative categorial semantic complexes (with reference to the English words as and like)

The article is devoted to the categorial semantic complexes that occur in speech and are based upon the interaction between the category of comparison and other linguistic categories (quality, quantity, modality, intensity, temporality, etc.). The research draws its data from British fiction and scientific texts that contain the words as and like. The speaker uses them while comparing objects, individuals or whole situations and establishes their equality or similarity based on their shared features. Apart from the commonly accepted constructions of explicit comparison with these words, the author also takes into account those contexts that can be regarded as the most peripheral cases expressing comparison (the word as in the function of the conjunction of time, cause, condition, concession, purpose; like as a discourse marker). The article presents an overview of 11 categorial semantic complexes, in each of which the dominant category is pointed out. Such an approach to the description of the semantics of these linguistic items seems promising as it reveals their multifaceted and polyfunctional nature as well as various intercategorial relations.