Introduction

Comparatives in English can manifest themselves in many ways, acting on many different grammatical categories and often involving ellipsis. A distinction must be made at the outset between two very different sorts of comparatives--those which make a comparison between two propositions and those which compare the extent to which an entity has one property to a greater or lesser extent than another property. The former, which we will refer to as propositional comparatives, is exemplified in ((442)), while the latter, which we will call metalinguistic comparatives (following Hellan 1981), is seen in ((443)):

(441)0(441

(442)

Ronaldo is more angry than Romario.  (442)0(442

(443)

Ronaldo is more angry than upset. 

In ((442)), the extent to which Ronaldo is angry is greater than the extent to which Romario is angry. Sentence ((443)) indicates that the extent to which Ronaldo is angry is greater than the extent to which he is upset. Apart from certain of the elliptical cases, both kinds of comparatives can be handled straightforwardly in the XTAG system. Elliptical cases which are not presently covered include those exemplified by the following sentences, which would presumably be handled in the same way as other sorts of VP ellipsis would.

(443)0(443

(444)

Ronaldo is more angry than Romario is.  (444)0(444

(445)

Bill eats more broccoli than George eats.  (445)0(445

(446)

Bill eats more broccoli than George does. 

We turn to the analysis of metalinguistic comparatives first.