Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese b. *[wo] bi [shugui] kuai I COM bookshelf tall ‘I am faster than the bookshelf.’ b’. *[wo kuai] bi [shugui kuai] I fast COM bookshelf fast Compared to CC in English like (9) and (10), the degree elements –er or more, together with the degree clause, quantified the degree of the main predicate. (9) a. John is tall. b. John is taller [than Mary was last year.] (10) a. John loves books b. John loves books more [than Mary does.] In this study, we attempt to see whether the degree adverb in BCC such as geng or hai(yao) ‘more’ are as crucial in comparative sentences like –er and more in English CCs. If so, the issue on the syntactic strucrure of BCC can be condensed as issue on the interactions among the degree adverb, the degree clasue, and the gradable predicate. 1.6 The Proposal and Claims This study is based on the minimalist program trying to find out a more general analysis on the syntax of CC crosslinguistically. In this study, I claim that the comparative degree adverb like geng/hai(yao) in MC behaves like more in English CC syntactically. Thus, I try to argue that BCC is a complementation structure rather 6 中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese than an adjunction structure (Fu 1978, Liu 1996, Hsing 2003, Chao 2005) or coordination structure (Tsao 1989, Hong 1991). In addition, I adopt the clausal analysis, and claim that the comparative marker bi is a complemtizer taking a proposition that share an identical predicate to that of the main clause, which the degree adverb modifies. The degree adverb is the head of the comparative structure, in which it requires two gradable clauses as its complements in the LF. Finally, the comparative deletion derived the BCC sentences in the PF level. 1.7 Organization of the Thesis The study is focused on BCC in MC, and the organization of this thesis is as follows. A literature review of CC in both MC and in English will be examined in chapter 2. In the beginning sections of chapter 3 (3.1 and 3.2), we have a discussion on the core elements of BCC bi and geng. To proceed, in Section 3.3 the discussion is on the complementation analysis on the BCC structure, and also the comparative deletion in PF. Finally, I will try to make a conclusion in chapter 4. 7 中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
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Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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