What's the difference between 及 and 與?

[chevil]

I'm sure there's a difference between these two in terms of their distribution, but I can't put my finger on it. For example, I'm pretty sure

我與他相似 is grammatical and

*我及他相似 is not.

For example, is a sentence such as 我記起了好多詞彙[及/與]用法, which one is preferable? Does anybody have a more fleshed out analysis of these two words?

Charles

[creamyhorror]

There are multiple meanings for both yu and ji. In this particular case, there is a common meaning between both of them, but yu has an additional meaning/function that ji does not. That accounts for the difference between your two examples.

1) yu and ji both meaning "and" in a list: A, B 及／与 C.

2) yu as a coordinating marker meaning "with": 我(与他)相似 = I (with him) [am] similar. Ji does not have this function. Other coordinating markers could be used instead: 和, 跟, and maybe 同.

Note that 相似 is acting as a verb here and so requires a coordinating marker. The structure is [subject]与[noun]相似. Now, if the structure were written explicitly to use 相似 as an adjective, then using ji could possibly be justified: A及B很相似.

I might be wrong on this - do confirm if I'm right or wrong, folks.

edit: The dictionary says 及 generally sets off the less important items in a list, e.g. 蔬菜，水果及其他食料. That might affect the acceptability of the A及B很相似 construction, since there's no reason to use 及 instead of a more 'balanced' conjunction like 与, 和, or 跟.

This would imply that in 我記起了好多詞彙[及/與]用法, '與' is the better choice.

I guess the conclusion is that there is more than one reason not to say 我及他相似.

[tooironic]

For all intents and purposes it's easier just to think of 与/和 as "and" (in lists) and 及/以及 as "as well as".