The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The etymology of "pas" is too crazy to translate word for word.

But that was my point: in those special situations where one wants a word-for-word translation (which of course will usually be ungrammatical and convey the wrong meaning), it makes no sense to consider the etymology of each word.  One should consider its current meaning in the given context and look for the word of the target language whose current meaning best matches it.

"Pas" in that French sentence is an (obligatory) reinforcement of the negation, vaguely conveying the idea that there is no qualification or mitigating factor that would soften it. In other contexts it would definitely map to "nothing" or "none" in a free translation.  Italian happens to have the word "niente" that would convey about the same meaning in that context.

All the best, --stolfi