Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
(6) a. wo gao Lisi san gongfen [CC without bi]
I tall Lisi three centimeter
‘I am three-centimeters taller than you are.’
b. gege da ni san sui
brother old you three year
‘My brother is three years older than you.’
Although it seems that many BCC sentences have corresponding forms in
sentence patterns without bi like (6), we can still find out some restrictions on CC
without bi. First of all, only adjectival verbs 3 can be the comparing dimension (the
predicate) in CC without bi. Gradable non-adjectival verbs such as xihuan ‘like’ in (7)
cannot occur in this pattern. Moreover, in BCC the measure expressions like san
gongfen ‘three centimeters’ is in complementary distribution with the degree adverb
geng; however, it is obligatorily to occur in CC without bi, and the occurrence of the
degree adverb geng makes the sentence unacceptable. 4 Therefore, we consider the
superlative construction without the marker bi is different from BCC like (4), and thus
exclude this pattern of CC from this study.
(7) a. * wo bi Lisi (*geng) xihuan xiezuo shi bei
I COM Lisi more like writing ten times
‘I like writing (ten times) more than Lisi.
3 In Mandarin, words like gao ‘tall’ should be categorized as adjectives, verbs, or even adjectival verbs
has long been a controversial issue. In this study, we take those ‘adjective-like’ words as one kind of
predicates-adjectival verbs.
4 As cited by Chao (2005:35), (von Stechlow 1984, Kennedy 2001, ect.) English comparative
sentences with the measure phrases like (i) are termed as Differential Comparatives. Therefore, in our
analysis CC without bi is taken as Differential Comparatives, while BCC is Degree Comparatives.
(i) John is 3 inches taller than Bill (is).
4
中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)