Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese

Syntax of the Bi Comparative Construction in Mandarin Chinese
element is dealt with as a/the “topic” of discourse, the “given” information. In the
literature the term “topicalization” often indicates the process that here we refer to as
“focalization” (Focus): the singling out of an element of the clause as the “new” or
“contrastive” information. Based on Belletti’s (2004) analysis, the given informational
topic of (120) is wo, thus is topicalized to the TopP, while the new/constructive
information topic is jintian, is in the FocusP. The movements and the landing sites are
more legitimate with Belletti’s (2004) analysis. Also, in the proposed syntactic
structure of BCC, I adopt Rizzi’s (1997) skeleton, in which he decompose CP into the
following projections: ForceP > TopicP* > FocusP > TopicP* > FiniteP > IP so as to
give a plausible explanation on the surface word order of BCC.
Last but not least, this geng-headed structure also undergoes a Comparative
Deletion (CD) on CP2 in the PF; therefore, in (121) xiang ni in vP2 is not spelled out
in PF. The issue of CD will be discussed more in the next section.
3.4.3 Comparative Deletion
Under the previous hypothesis that a CC is composed by at least two clauses, it is
accepted that BCC involve some ellipsis operation (Bresnan 1975, Hong 1981, Napoli
1983, Liu 1996, 1999, Kennedy 1999, Lechner 2001, Hsing 2003, Chao 2005 and so
on). By Napoli’s (1983) definition, Comparative Deletion (CD) is an obligatory rule
that deletes a phrase in the subordinate clause under identity to the quantified phrase
in the higher clause, while Comparative Ellipsis (CE) is an optional rule that delete
elements from the subordinate clause under identity with elements in the main clause.
In (122), wo is obligatorily deleted by CD, while it is optional to delete chi without
changing the meaning of the sentences. Yet, this CD analysis helps to make the
ambiguous sentence (123) clear in (123b) and (123c). Sentence (123b) are comparison
of two clauses with the same gradable predicate xiang ta, thus the one in the
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中正大學 e-Thesys (94 學年度)