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I ask NOT about comparatives stated in the positive; I ask about those involving a negation (what I tried to imply by 'negative') such as the following. Hereinafter, I interpret 'as' and 'than' as conjunctions:

1. He is not as {adjective} as she. => She is marginally more {adjective} than he.
2. He is less {adjective} than she. => She is more {adjective} than he.

My problem involves my dispute over the comparative deletion for the predicate of the second subject. If I restore the deletion, which I bold and matches the predicate, then 1 and 2 becomes:

1.1. He is not as {adjective} as she [ is not as {adjective} ].
2.1. He is less {adjective} than she [ is less {adjective} ].

Yet 1.1 and 2.1 don't appear to make any sense. Rather, 1 and 2 ought to mean:

1.2. He is not as {adjective} as she [ is not as {adjective} ].
2.2. He is less {adjective} than she [ is less {adjective} ].

But now, as regards 1.2 and 2.2, the predicates for 'he' differ from those for 'she', so how do these constitute ellipsis? Or are there some other grammatical terms or phenomena that has eluded me?

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    The not takes scope over the comparison, not the the two comparands severally: He { is / is not} [as ADJ as she is [ADJ]]
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2015 at 1:12
  • @StoneyB: Please put that as an answer!
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Feb 16, 2015 at 5:59

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Answered in comments:

The not takes scope over the comparison, not the the two comparands severally: He { is / is not} [as ADJ as she is [ADJ]] – StoneyB Feb 16 2015

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