Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese (90) wo ai ta bi ni duo I love him COM you many (i) ‘I love him more than I love you.’ (ii) ‘I love him more than you do.’ However, coordination sentence do not bring such ambiguity. (91) a. Zhangsan jiao [Lisi han ni] dou hen younaixin Zhangsan teach Lisi and you both very patient ‘Zhangsan is very patient in teaching both you and Lisi.’ b. [Zhangsan jiao Lisi han ni Ø] dou hen younaixin Zhangsan teach Lisi and you both very patient *‘Both Zhangsan and Lisi is very patient in teaching you.’ Thus we know that sentence like (90) makes involve two clauses with contrasting objects to be compared, there may be some ellipsis occurs. 3.2.4 bi As A Complementizer As English is an inflectional language, after some comparative ellipsis, we can still tell from the tense marking that it involves two propositions in different clauses to be compared (92). Thus, Bresnan (1975) takes than in CC as a coordinator in her analysis. (92) a. I am taller than John (is). b. I love you more than John does. 56 中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese It is widely accepted that BCC concerns two clauses to be compared as CCs in English (Fu 1978, Hong 1991, Liu 1998, Xing 2003). To take bi as a complementizer also indicates that the bi-clause is adjoined later to the main clause. Compared items of different categories, such as NPs, VPs, PPs, and IPs (76), are actually CPs with gradable comparative predicates and undergoes some comparative ellipsis operation. When it comes to comparison, the compared items are required to be semantically parallel and mostly identical syntactic category so as to be the basis for the comparison. Thus, they may be taken as coordinate structure. In Hong’s (1991) coordination analysis, sentences like (93) are comparison of NPs, and this coordinate NP complex share a predicate nuli. (93) [[NP Zhangsan] bi [NPLisi]] geng ai yundong Zhangsan COM Lisi more love exercise ‘Zhangsan loves exercise more than Lisi does.’ However, in (94a), the coordinate NP complex do not have a collective reading so as to be the antecedent of the reflexive ziji in their common predicate. Yet, as we can see in (94b), Zhangsan and Lisi are subjects of different clauses that are compared, and thus they do not share the same predicate and even the object reflexive ziji. Also, the elements that bi takes can also have tense like (95). We can thus conclude that the element that bi introduces is a clause. (94) a. [[NP Zhangsani] bi [NPLisij]] geng ai zijii/j Zhangsan COM Lisi more love oneself ‘Zhangsan loves himself more than Lisi does.’ 57 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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