Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese Also, MC prepositions do not take PPs as the complement, but bi does. (81) a. *Zhangsan dui zai taibei mei yijian Zhangsan to at Taipei no opinion b. Zhangsan [PPdui youxi] bi [PPdui shuben] geng youxingqu Zhangsan to games COM to book more interest ‘Zhangsan is more interested in games than in books.’ Historically bi is a verb, and it also shares some characteristics to the prepositions, however, undergoing some neutralization process with time, it lost some as well. We will try to propose that bi may behave like a complementizer later in Section 3.2.4. 3.2.3 bi As a Conjunction Categorical identity across conjuncts is a characteristic feature of coordinate construction 11 (Chomsky 1957). CC involves two items that are semantically parallel to be compared; it seems that the comparative marker bi behaves similarly to a conjunction, which coordinate conjuncts of different categories (see (82) ~ (84)). However, even when the conjunts are syntactically identical, the asymmetry in semantics may still cause the sentences unacceptable. 11 In the coordination stentences, the conjuncts should be parallel both semantically and syntactically. (i) a. Zhangsan tiaowu you change Zhangsan dance also sing ‘Zhangsan dance and sing.’ b. * Zhangsan tiaowu you chuben Zhangsan dance also book 52 中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese (82) a. [NP Zhangsan] bi [NPLisi] nuli Zhangsan COM Lisi work hard ‘Zhangsan works harder than Lisi.’ b. *[NP Zhangsan] bi [VPyundong] nuli Zhangsan COM exercise work hard (83) a. Zhangsan [VP paobu] bi [VP youyong] fast Zhangsan run COM swim fast ‘Zhangsan runs faster than swims.’ b. * Zhangsan [VP paobu] bi [NP shuben] fast Zhangsan run COM books fast (84) a. [CPdajia yiqi zhao ziliao] bi [CPni ziji xiang] geng kuai everyone together find data COM you self think more fast ‘It is faster that all of us find the data together than you do it by yourself.’ b. * Zhangsan bi [yundong] nuli Zhangsan COM exercise work hard Coordination sentences such as (85) reveals that asymmetrical syntactic categories of the coordinate conjuncts are not acceptable in coordination, yet BCCs do not have this limitation, and the compared items are even at times not full constituent (86) ~ (87). (85) a. *[NPwo] han [zuotian] qu taibei I and yesterday go to Taipei 53 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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