Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
(118) a. The lexical head hypothesis b. The functional head hypothesis
AP DegP
3 3
DegP A Deg’ 6
2 2 degree clause
Deg 6 Deg AP
g degree clause g
geng geng
In the lexical head hypothesis (118a), the degree adverb and the degree clause form a
degree quantifier argument in the specifier position of the gradable predicate.
However, in this analysis the degree clause has to be obligatorily raised, this
movement is not motivated by anything apart from the need to derive the correct
surface word order. Contrarily, the original functional head hypothesis for CC in
English as in (118b), the degree clause is in the specifier position. Based on the
locality restriction, the functional head hypothesis provides a better architecture with a
closer syntactical relationship among the core elements of CC. In BCC there are two
possible tree structures under the functional head hypothesis. See (119a).
(119) The functional head hypothesis
a. DegP b. DegP
ei ei
vP/ aP Deg’ 5 Deg’
ei bi-clause ei
Deg 5 Deg vP/ aP
(geng) bi-clause (geng)
The configuration in (119a) goes against the morphological constituency between the
degree adverb geng and the main predicate, which is a common morphological rule in
both MC and English; that is, a degree adverb should take a gradable predicate as its
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中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)