What is the function of 要 and is it necessary in this sentence?

[anonymoose]

What is the function of 要 in this sentence? Could it be omitted without changing the meaning?

有时学习速度 甚至比其他孩子还要慢。

I'm guessing it has no real function. It is just included because of prosodic necessity.

[tanhql]

it is needed to show the intensity of the slowness. it's like 'sometimes the studying speed is even slower than other children'. also, 甚至比 ... 还要 almost always goes to together.

[anonymoose]

Thanks, tanhql, that's helpful.

[pattifranklin]

I agree with tanhql. it simply emphasizes the slowness. After looking over the definitions of 要, it may be related to demand. I guess you could say that so and so demands even more slowness.

I don't think slowness is a word, but you get the point.

[againstwind]

What is the function of 要 in this sentence? Could it be omitted without changing the meaning?

yes, it could.

I'm guessing it has no real function

Actually, 要 in this context has a function that acts as an adverb meaning an estimate, which is often used in a comparison. 要 could be used before or after ' 比……''.

e.g.

有时（他的）学习速度甚至比其他孩子还要慢。

有时（他的）学习速度甚至要比其他孩子还慢。

And in this context,要 could be omitted without changing any meaning.

有时（他的）学习速度甚至比其他孩子还慢。

Some other examples:

他（要）比我走得慢些。[=他比我（要）走得慢些。=他比我走得（要）慢些。]

On tanhql's opinion, it's reasonable,but I'm not sure.

Actually, I think in '甚至比 ... 还要' it should be '甚至' and '还' that have the function of emphasis.