Parsing comparisons
Oh, now I'm a bit lost... if the PP is licensed by as, how can it not be a complement of as? To me, that sounds like saying that, for instance, a book in I gave him a book is licensed by gave, but is a complement of something else? Are there words that license complements for words other than themselves?? I have no problem seeing that the whole thing is a modifier of cute, so I do see the connection to cute; it's just, like I said, that I don't understand the functional splitting up of as...as an angel– especially not if the PP is indeed licensed by the first as. Hm. If we have the following clause (which seems utterly appropriate right now...): This is more complicated than I thought, wouldn't more...than I thought be a discontinuous AdvP modifying complicated, where more in turn is the head of the modifying AdvP, and than I thought would be a complement of more? Have I misunderstood this too?
As I've already said: I am truly, truly grateful for your help, and I'm not doubting you – my questions are sincere.
Top answer
I'm not sure why you asked a question in the first place if you are convinced that you already know the answer. e. those complements that are licensed not by the head of the construction in which they occur, but by some other dependent of the head.
- I'm not sure why you asked a question in the first place if you are convinced that you already know the answer.
- e.
- those complements that are licensed not by the head of the construction in which they occur, but by some other dependent of the head.
- Take, for example a longer delay than we expected The underlined complement is ‘indirect’ in that in constituent structure it is not a dependent of the licensor “longer”, but of the head noun that is modified by the latter.
- In other words, the PP “than we expected” is a dependent of “delay”, not directly of “longer”.
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I'm not sure why you asked a question in the first place if you are convinced that you already know the answer.
We’re talking about ‘indirect complements’ here, i.e. those complements that are licensed not by the head of the construction in which they occur, but by some other dependent of the head.
Take, for example
a longer delay than we expected
The
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