Questions about [ As little as ~ ]

Question

Hi. ~~I have some confusion in understanding this sentence.==&gt; As little as a reader today reads all the individual words of a gape.The phrase 'As little as', is this comparative? Or just idiomatic expression?1. I want to know the meaning of this phrase2. and what category of grammar this phrase belong to.Thanks. I'm really looking forward to your help~

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

AnonymousI have some confusion in understanding this sentence.==> As little as a reader today reads all the individual words of a gape.

I do too. The sentence is gibberish.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI have some confusion in understanding this sentence.==> As little as a reader today reads all the individual words of a gape.

You will create nothing but misery for yourself if you continue to extract bits of sentences you read elsewhere and then expect others to recreate the context in which you found them. Your dyslexic rendering of 'page' as 'gape' did nothing in your favor, either. Here is what you should have posted:

As little as a reader today reads all the individual words (not to speak of the syllables) of a page—he rather takes about five words in twenty haphazardly and "conjectures" their probable meaning—just as little do we see a tree exactly and entire with regard to its leaves, branches, color, shape; it is so much easier for us to put together an approximation of a tree.— Nietzsche

Note the parallelism in the whole sentence. The point is this: We very seldom read individual words when reading a text. Similarly, we very seldom see a tree exactly as it is in all its detail.

We pay attention in the first case just as little as we pay attention in the second case, i.e., with the same degree of inattention.

CJ

Meansup · Answer

Thanks.
Sorry for causing you displeasure. I shouldn't have done that. My question was nonsense.

My questions is this.

As little as a reader today reads all the individual words (not to speak of the syllables) of a page—he rather takes about five words in twenty haphazardly and "conjectures" their probable meaning—just as little do we see a tree exactly and entire with regard to its leaves, branches, color, shape; it is so much easier for us to put together an approximation of a tree.

First, what I thought was this. [ ~ just as little do we see a tree exactly and ~ ]
conj. ad. v. s. -> inversion

In this phrase, I considered [ 'just as' ] like this. [ 'Just as' you may sometimes need to talk things over with someone, your mom may need to, also. ]

So, I thought [ ~ just as little do we see a tree ~~~~ color, shape; ] was just a dependent clause which can be omitted when considering the structural aspect of independent clause.
And I didn't think [ 'just as~' ] was a part of comparative.

Based on this, I thought
[ Little does a reader today read all the individual words ~ — just as little do we see a tree exactly ~ ]
ad. v. s. conj. ad. v. s.
was what this sentence was conveying.

But I was confused by the phrase [ 'As little as a reader today reads all the individual words of a page ~' ]
"How do I interpret 'As little as'? I think I can get a glimpse of its meaning but this structure is so unusual to me."

This triggered my question, and I wanted to know whether 'As little as' is a part of some grammatical structure or some idiomatic expression; or I shouldn't try to analyze it but just get a meaning and escape.

Thanks.

CalifJim · Answer

meansupI wanted to know whether 'As little as' is a part of some grammatical structure or some idiomatic expression

The grammatical structure is a comparative of equality of degrees. (The reference is to adverbs of degree, like much and little.)

Comparing by superiority:
How much do we X? (To some degree, call it p.)
How much do we Y? (To some degree, call it q.)
p = q; therefore,
We X as much as we Y.
Or, with stylistic inversion: As much as we X, just as much do we Y.

Comparing by inferiority:
How little do we X? (To some degree, call it p.)
How little do we Y? (To some degree, call it q.)
p = q; therefore,
We X as little as we Y.
Or with stylistic inversion: As little as we X, just as little do we Y.

Hence,
As [much/little] as we read individual letters ("p"),
just as [much/little] do we see a tree exactly ("q").

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the answer. It is really helpful.

Actually, I was trying to understand 'as little as' as a comparative.
But the fact that in spite of the fronting of the negative phrase, inversion doesn't happen kept me from understanding it as comparative.

If [ We X as little as we Y ] is changed to stylistic inversion [ As little as we X, just as little do we Y ], then isn't the inversion necessary?; that is [ As little as do we X, just as little do we Y ].

I'm wondering whether inversion is optional in this case or it just feels messy if we first do stylistic inversion and again do grammatical inversion afterward.

Thanks.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

You have to realize that this is an extremely formal philosophical literary work. Nietzsche is not one of the easiest authors to read. I think that the philosophers do this so people (even native speakers) have to really pay attention and read a sentence two or three times to fully understand it.

To understand a construction, it is best to take a simpler example of its usage.
The more common way you will see or hear "as little as" would be something like this:

As little as she eats, she should be losing weight.

Using this basic construction, Nietzsche expresses two different analogs where people perceive a fragmentary sensory environment but nevertheless are able to construct a mental approximation of the reality.

The inversion in the second analog was only to stylistically offer a contrast to the first. Note that the second "as" is omitted if inversion is not used. To me, the original version with the stylistic inversion offers a much pithier statement. It forces us to read every word....

As little as a reader today reads all the individual words (not to speak of the syllables) of a page—he rather takes about five words in twenty haphazardly and "conjectures" their probable meaning—just as little as we see a tree exactly and entire with regard to its leaves, branches, color, shape; it is so much easier for us to put together an approximation of a tree.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousIf [ We X as little as we Y ] is changed to stylistic inversion [ As little as we X, just as little do we Y ], then isn't the inversion necessary?; that is [ As little as do we X, just as little do we Y ].I'm wondering whether inversion is optional in this case or it just feels messy if we first do stylistic inversion and again do grammatical inversion afterward.

My apologies. I did not mean "stylistic inversion" in the technical sense (Into the hole jumped the rabbit). That was a bad word choice. I meant rephrasing that includes grammatical inversion for the purposes of literary style or, in simpler terms, I meant just "a fancier way of stating the same thing".

In any case, As little as do we X, just as little do we Y is not correct. Grammatical inversion should occur only in the second clause.

CJ

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