Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese behavior of the word bi, which is widely taken as the comparative marker, will be discussed firstly in 3.1. Base on the idea that bi is a complementizer that introduces a comparative clause; we then adopt the functional hypothesis for the BCC structure. 3.3 The Syntactic Properties of bi in Comparative Constructions Previous studies of BCC often start with classifying the category of the comparative morpheme bi, based on which they try to study the syntactic structure. In this section, we examine the possible syntactic categories of bi, and then propose that with some historical change, bi behaves more like a complementizer that introduces the degree clause to adjoin as the datum of the comparison. 3.2.1 bi As a Verb Originally, bi has the meaning of “compare” and “compete;” however, after long years of historical derivation, behaves quite differently in both context. Chao (1968) maintains that bi is always a verb and thus analyzes BCC as an instance of serial verb construction (SVC). However, lots of syntactic evidence have been listed to manifest that bi in BCC does not behave like a verb (Hong 1991, Hsing 2003). Though the verb bi ‘to compete’ and the comparative marker bi were historically related, they are actually homophones today. First, aspect markers can be added to a verb like (71a), which is also feasible when bi is used as a verb (71b). However, there is no way to add the aspect markers to the bi in the comparative construction (71c). (71) a. Laoli na le maojin qu xizao. [SVC] Laoli take ASP towel go take a bath. ‘Laoli took a towel to take a bath.’ 46 中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese b. tamen yijing bi guo liqi le they already compete ASP strength ASP ‘They have already competed for their strength.’ c. *wo bi guo Lisi geng ai ni I COM ASP Lisi more love you Second, objects of transitive verb can be proposed, while object of bi in CC cannot. (72) a. maojin, Laoli na qu xizao. [SVC] towel Laoli take go take a bath. ‘The towel, Laoli took it to take a bath.’ b. [liqi], tamen bi e le strength they compete ASP ‘Strength, they have already competed.’ c. *Lisi, wo bi e geng ai ni Lisi I COM more love you Third, while transitive verb can be an elliptical simple positive answer to a yes-no question, but bi in CC cannot. (73) a. Q: Laoli qu shangdian mai dongxi le ma? (SVC) Laoli go store buy things ASP PART ‘Did Laoli go to the store to buy things?’ A: qu le. go ASP ‘Yes, he did.’ 47 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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