Making sense of the structure 像/一样+的

Question

I'm having trouble understanding the following sentence:

"猴王穿得像个人一样的走了很长时间。"

Google translates it as

"The Monkey King dressed like a man and walked for a long time. " but I don't think this is accurate.

I know that the structure 像。。。一样 is often used to indicate that two nouns are similar in some fashion (in this case 猴王 and 个人 clothes).

What I am really struggling with is the use of 的 in the sentence and how it connects with the whole sentence, or what function does it serve.

Answer 1

It seems to me that using 的/de/ instead of 地/de/ as an adverb marker is acceptable to most people.

Look at the following two phrases

重重地打擊 /chóngchóng de dǎjí/ : heavily(adv) hit(v)

重重的打擊 /chóngchóng de dǎjí/ : heavy(adj) hit(n)

The functions of 地 and 的 are clearly different, however, we often see sentences like this: 重重的打擊他 (hit him heavily). 的 here takes on the role of an adverb marker (same as 地)

重重的打擊他 = 重重地打擊他

猴王穿得像个人一样的走了很长时间

的 here modifies the verb 走 (describes the manner of the verb is carried out), therefore, it is acting as an adverb marker instead of an adjective marker

It is also correct to write: 猴王穿得像个人一样地走了很长时间

Answer 2

猴王穿得像个人一样的走了很长时间。

I shared the opinion with @Alife. The problem isn't about the usage of 的 or 地. The 穿得像个人一样(dressed like a man) isn't a way of walking, so it cannot be used to describe the walk itself. It's better to parallel the two phrases like:

猴王穿得像个人一样走了很长时间。

Or

猴王穿得像个人一样, (它)走了很长时间。

In real life, some might deliberately use this nonsensical description to make a joke. E.g. 他像骑马一样地吃饭。But in OP's sentence, it's not for joking purpose obviously.

Answer 3

Your confusion is reasonable. The correct ways would be

• 猴王穿得像个人一样走了很长时间
• 猴王穿得像个人一样似的走了很长时间 (this could be seen as redundancy, but it's probably common colloquially)
• 穿得像个人一样的猴王走了很长时间

Answer 4

I agree with ALife. It reads much better and more understandable if we use a comma to separate the sentence and get rid of 的: 猴王穿得像个人一样, 他走了很长时间

Answer 5

thanks for all the answers. This has been very helpful.

Update

Jeff Pepper is the Founder and CEO of imagin8press, the publisher of the book from where I got this passage. Here's his take on the matter:

"Hi Marcus, thanks for pointing this out. I talked it over with my writing partner and translator Xiao Hui, and we agree that the use of 的 in this sentence is correct, although it might be confusing.

As used here, 的is part of the expression 一样的, meaning "the same". As I'm sure you've seen, 的 is often put after an adjective, for example in the common expression 好的. When we use 的 here, it pertains to the word before it, 一样, and not the words that follow it.

Xiao Hui suggests that we could have broken it up with a comma, like this: 猴王穿得像个人一样的, 走了很长时间。

Anyway, hope this makes sense. I see that you've started a Reddit discussion about this. feel free to pass our comments along if you like!

Best regards,"

Answer 6

Your sentence is from the book "The Rise of the Monkey King" (《猴王的诞生》), which includes both the original

"The Monkey King walked a long way dressed like a man."

and the translation

"猴王穿得像个人一样的走了很长时间。"

Anyway, from a purely grammatical standpoint, as auxiliary particle I would have used 地 (used after an adverbial phrase before verbs and adjectives, in this case the verb 走) instead of 的.