I agree with Aaron Profitt. The only two possible answers are 'as' (more
formal) and 'what' (less formal). I can see the logic of 'like', but it
sets of the native-speaker-intuition alarm bells.

As to 'the' or no 'the' in generic expressions, it seems to  hew pretty
closely to the count/mass distinction: count Ns take 'the' as generics
and mass nouns don't. Is this right? (count nouns can also be plural as generics:

The mosquito is often a vector of disease.
Mosquitoes are often vectors of disease.

Mass nouns, of course, can't do this, because they can't pluralize.)

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Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
Summer 1999: Response to voice- or e-mail within one week
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"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
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