Eckhard Bick - VISL

AP S
ADV ADJ COMP S
mais bonito do=que (é) capaz
In this analysis, in order to avoid a disjunct constituent, the semantic dependency link
between 'mais' and 'do=que' is ignored, and the comparandum attaches to the AP 'mais
bonito' as a whole, as would be the case in a synthetic comparative. Also, the
comparandum is analysed as a (deep structure) subclause rather than the small clause
analysis used in my parser, which works without hypothetical or zero constituents.
Besides being unnecessarily complicated, I find it illogical in one aspect to add
information (the zero/hypothetical predicator) while at the same time removing
dependency information that is lexically present in the surface string (the pairing of
mais - do=que, tal - qual, tão - como).
Alternatively, one might introduce disjunct constituents, as in the Odense English
syntax model (Bache et. al., 1993), and analyse the comparandum as a (comparative)
group rather than a clause:
(2c') Sent
P:v O:g- A:g -O:g
DEP:g- H:n H:prep DEP:v -DEP:g
H:pro DEP:g
- 283 -
H:prep DEP:g
DEP:art DEP:pro H:n
Tinha mais dinheiro para gastar do=que o seu irmão