Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

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)