Usage of 異乎 for 不同

[Mark Yong]

Are there any instances where 異乎 is used to express 不同, other than the idioms 異乎尋常 and 異乎常人? Specifically, is 『A 異乎 B』 a grammatically-valid way of expressing 『A 與 B 不相同』?

The only place that I have seen it used this way is in the first sentence of the 『訓民正音』, i.e. 『國之語音、異乎中國。』.

[skylee]

Specifically, is 『A 異乎 B』 a grammatically-valid way of expressing 『A 與 B 不相同』?

I can't comment on grammar as I don't know much about it. But it seems to me that people don't write / speak like this nowadays.

You might wish to note that you can also say 異於尋常 or 異於常人. And it is also ok to use 無異於 (there is no difference) and 有異於 (there is a difference) in writing. PS - you can say A有異於B, or A無異於B

[zhwj]

A couple of other contexts:

此文触目之处,是将《老子》的话理解为:学问做得越多,道术就越受损害。这真是异乎我之所闻。 《光明日报》

其资金链紧张程度将异乎想象，一个唯一的结论是房地产市场将继续深度调整。第一财经日报

Neither of these are that sort of A/B context, though.

Oddly, it also appears in contexts where it seems to mean something like 非常.

创业12年来,蒙牛培育了异乎强大的渠道网络和营销能力。投资者报

大学生就业异乎艰难的当下，一所地方高校却另辟蹊径，批量复制着淘宝富豪，这就是电商的另一面。千龙网

Searching for 异乎艰难 suggests that this sort of thing might be an elision of 寻常, i.e. 异乎寻常地艰难

[skylee]

Oddly, it also appears in contexts where it seems to mean something like 非常

It is odd indeed. I think those are just typos and should be 異常 (extraordinarily / abnormally) instead.

[Mark Yong]

skylee wrote:

You might wish to note that you can also say 異於尋常 or 異於常人. And it is also ok to use 無異於 (there is no difference) and 有異於 (there is a difference) in writing. PS - you can say A有異於B, or A無異於B

Yup, agreed. Actually, I kind of treated 於 and 乎 as loosely interchangeable prepositions in this case, that’s why I did not mention what you quoted above. The main intent of my question was to enquire whether 異 is still normally used in writing in place of 不同.

zhwj wrote:

这真是异乎我之所闻。

Yes, this is an interesting example, I guess one would normally write it as 這眞是跟（與）我所聽（聞）的有所不同。

skylee wrote:

But it seems to me that people don't write / speak like this nowadays.

For the record, I would have written it as 『此異於吾之所聞也。』