Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
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<strong>Syntax</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Bi</strong> <strong>Comparative</strong> <strong>Construction</strong> <strong>in</strong> Mandar<strong>in</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>ese<br />
b. wo [CPbi Lisi ai ni] geng ai ni<br />
I COM Lisi love you more love you<br />
Note that, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Her (2006), MC complementizers such as gei and shuo<br />
needs to be licensed and thus cannot stand alone, <strong>the</strong> comparative marker bi is not an<br />
exception. The comparative bi-clause occurs only with gradable phrases that are<br />
modified by <strong>the</strong> degree adverb geng. The complementizer determ<strong>in</strong>es <strong>the</strong> type <strong>of</strong> IP<br />
which it <strong>in</strong>troduces. English that selects f<strong>in</strong>ite clauses and English for selects<br />
<strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>itival clauses (Hageman 1997:53), similarly bi <strong>in</strong> MC selects gradable<br />
comparative clauses.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> follow<strong>in</strong>g section 3.3, we are go<strong>in</strong>g to f<strong>in</strong>d out more evidence to support<br />
<strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that bi and geng has co-occurrence restriction and ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
necessity <strong>of</strong> geng <strong>in</strong> BCC.<br />
3.3 The Syntactic Status <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Degree adverb- geng 13<br />
Gradable predicates can <strong>in</strong>clude nom<strong>in</strong>al, adjectival, and verbal predicates (Sapir<br />
1944, Bol<strong>in</strong>ger 1972) <strong>in</strong> (103), it is <strong>the</strong> gradable feature that makes <strong>the</strong> clauses<br />
comparable. In this section, we are go<strong>in</strong>g to propose that though <strong>the</strong> comparative<br />
degree adverb geng is <strong>of</strong>ten covert <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> PF, it is actually <strong>the</strong> head <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> comparative<br />
DegP that assign feature to <strong>the</strong> comparative bi-clauses.<br />
13 Besides geng, <strong>the</strong> comparative degree adverbs can also have its alternations haiyao/ hai, ‘more,’ for<br />
some phonological or pragmatic reason; <strong>the</strong>y cannot alternate for each o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>in</strong> some cases, and<br />
sometimes even both <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m can be covert. Phonologically, <strong>the</strong> stress on geng is heavier than haiyao/<br />
hai, so we hopo<strong>the</strong>size that <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>of</strong> emphatic mean<strong>in</strong>g on <strong>the</strong>se alternative comparavie degree<br />
adverbs are geng >haiyao/ hai>φ. Yet, geng seems to occur <strong>in</strong> most cases, we take geng as <strong>the</strong><br />
representitive <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> comparative degree adverb.<br />
(i) a. wo bi Lisi (geng/haiyao) gao<br />
I COM Lisi more tall<br />
‘I am taller than Lisi.’<br />
b. wo bi Lisi (*geng)/(haiyao) gao san gongfen<br />
I COM Lisi more tall three centimeter<br />
‘I am three centimeters taller than Lisi is.’<br />
61<br />
中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)
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