Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 5 (2006), 5-35 ISSN 1645-4537

This paper aims at offering a global picture of the subtype of comparative constructions known as ‘multi-headed comparatives’ (from the fact that they exhibit more than one comparative operator in semantic interdependence). As a prerequisite to the fulfilment of his goal, an attempt will be made to clarify the scope of the notion ‘comparative construction’ and to draw a general typology of such constructions. The boundaries of the notion ‘comparative construction’ are defined by contrasting a “genuine” class of comparative constructions with others that hold some syntactic or semantic resemblance to them. Different typologies will be taken into consideration. As for multiheaded comparatives, even though different examples of these constructions have been identified in the scarce literature on the matter, the discussion on their syntactic patterns and meaning is still embryonic. This paper suggests that the expressive power of these comparatives, which seem to provide a particular strategy of information compression, is higher than has been assumed. Four sub-kinds of multi-headed comparatives are identified, based on meaning differences, namely: multi-headed comparatives with a distributive reading, multi-headed comparatives with a cumulative reading, multiheaded comparatives with a comparison of ‘ratios’ reading, and multiheaded comparatives with a comparison of differences reading. While resorting to some classic English examples, the object language will predominantly be Portuguese. 1 On the notion ‘comparative construction’ 1.1 Introductory note Comparative constructions are a particularly complex kind of structure, which gave rise to several debates on their syntax and semantics, and on the syntax/semantics interface. In spite of the abundant discussion, a unanimous notion of ‘comparative construction’ can hardly be found. Instead, it covers diverse kinds of constructions, differing both syntactically and semantically. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 5 (2006), 5-35 ISSN 1645-4537