Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
Third, according to the pragmatic principle, Li and Thompson (1981) try to make
sentences (14) more clearly as (17b); yet it obeys their first hypothesis that the
compared items should be the topic or subject, and the compared items X and Y are
not constituents. Tsao attemps to account for them by deletion rules.
(17) a. wo bi zuotian shufu
I COM yesterday comfortable
‘I feel better than I did yesterday.’
b. wo jintian bi wo zuotian shufu
I today COM I yesterday comfortable
‘Same as (a).’
In Tsao’s Topic-Comment analysis, he claims that the compared items which are
on both sides of the comparative marker-bi should be topics of an equal rank- primary,
secondary, or tertiary, which in order are given examples in (18), (19), and (20). And
the comparing dimension is expressed by the Comment part, which is either an adverb
or a verb capable of being modified by the adverb hen ‘very.’ The idea that the
compared topics can be of different rank gives an explanation to those compared
items that are not full constituents such as (19) and (20).
(18) ta bi wo nenggan (primary topics)
s/he COM I competent
‘S/He is more competent than I am.
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中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)