Grammatical Question: 相当+于

[DrWatson]

I'm trying to understand the meaning of 于 in the sentence below.

有的中国人认为大学校长的职务相当于一个市长的职务。

I understand 于 to be an equivalent of "to, in, at". In this case it seems to be acting as a copula or some sort, something like "is". Is this a common grammatical pattern? Am I misunderstanding something?

Edited April 1, 2010 at 02:51 AM by DrWatson
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[HeWei2]

"相当于" can be translated as "equivalent to", with "于" acting like a preposition for the following noun

[Xjian0104]

Yes. We always translate 于 into the words " to of with " ,and so on

相当 于

equivalent to

equal of

commensurate with

However, it isn't proprely to just translate 于 into "is".

有的中国人认为大学校长的职务相当于一个市长的职务。

Some Chinese thinks that the university president is equal of the mayor.（They are at the same level in the adminitrate system of China .)

It is wrong to say "the university president is the major"

Please let me know if I misunderstand your post

[DrWatson]

Thank you for the clarifications, I see my original line of thinking was incorrect. "equivalent to" or "equal of" makes a lot of sense in this context. I think I may have had a faulty understanding of 相当as well. Thanks for your help!

[Kenny同志]

It is lengthy. A better version would be 有的中国人认为，大学校长跟市长行政级别相当。

Edited April 2, 2010 at 01:47 AM by kenny2006woo

[skylee]

A better version would be 有的中国人认为，大学校长跟市长职称相当。

Better? 職稱? I think the original sentence is about one's duties being comparable to the other's.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for correcting me, Skylee. There's an administrative rank system (行政级别) on the Mainland, according to which a university president usually has the same rank as that of a mayor, namely, 副厅级.

[skylee]

My point is 職稱 means "post title", whereas 職務 means “duties”. And you have just brought in another term "rank" 職級. They are not the same, and the original sentence uses 職務 (duties).

PS - you might want to correct the typo, it is mayor.

[Kenny同志]

I don't think their duties are comparable or equivalent. This is quite obvious.

[skylee]

This is probably why the original sentence starts with "有的中國人認為“, meaning that not all Chinese people agree with the statement.

[Kenny同志]

I said a university president and a mayor USUALLY had the same administrative rank. That means sometimes their 行政级别 can differ. I wasn't familiar with the system. I had consulted my roomates before I opted for 行政级别.

[crazillo]

相当 is just like 非常 though, right? I knew the meaning of 相当于 but was surprised to find out 相当 is so different.

[Glenn]

It can mean that, yes. Check it out in baidu's dictionary: 相当

Edited April 5, 2010 at 06:40 PM by Glenn