home edit page issue tracker

This page pertains to UD version 2.

obl:cmp: comparative oblique argument

The cmp subtype is of semantic nature and is used to point out the standards of comparison in comparative constructions unitarily: advcl:cmp for comparative adverbial clauses, obl:cmp for comparative oblique arguments.

Oblique arguments as standards of comparison in comparative constructions are less used and more limited than comparative clauses in Latin. They always consist of a bare nominal element (including nominal verbal forms) in the ablative case. So, they are seen to be different from comparative clauses in that they are not introduced by a conjunction and are always inflected in the ablative, thus functioning as arguments in the main clause, directly depending on the term expressing degree or contrast, if any. This use of the ablative is related to, and sometimes difficult to distinguish from other, similar uses of the ablative.

In the following examples, the passages in the translations corresponding to oblique comparative arguments are boldfaced. The element on which it depends is underlined.

‘First, the impossibility of the water at any part of its circumference being loftier than this emergent or uncovered land will be demonstrated.’ (Questio de aqua et terra, UDante)

‘… we dwell on a mount Trinacrian, than which no other hill of Sicily more rich doth pasture flocks and herds.’ (Eclogues IV, UDante)


obl:cmp in other languages: [kpv] [la] [mdf] [myv] [te]
BESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswy