The Syntactic And Semantic Analysis Of Bi-comparatives In Mandarin Chinese

As is known to all, comparative construction is one of the sentence patterns thatare widely used in languages. Thus, the study of comparative constructions has beenone of the major topics in the generative tradition. However, compared with theextensive study on comparative constructions in English and other Europeanlanguages, relatively little has been done on the Mandarin Chinese counterpart, whosetypical representation is the bi-comparatives. Mandarin bi-comparatives generallyfollow the basic syntactic pattern: target+bi+standard+predicate of comparison.Based on the previous research on Mandarin bi-comparatives, this thesis puts forwardthree research questions as follows:I. What is the syntactic category of bi in Mandarin bi-comparatives?II.What is the syntax of the standard introduced by bi? Is it just a DP or an elided CP?III.What is the semantics of Mandarin bi-comparatives? Does it involve explicitcomparison or implicit comparison? Can we use the standard degree-based theory toexplain Mandarin bi-comparatives?Thus, concerning about the above three research questions, this thesis arrives atthe following review through a series of syntactic and semantic analysis. Firstly, thethesis makes an assertion that the bi comparative construction in Mandarin Chinesepresents the property of adjunct and bi belongs to the category of preposition. Itsolidifies the prepositional analysis of bi by offering evidence and argumentation thatare more convincing and more persuasive. Secondly, we argue that phrasalcomparatives and clausal comparatives in Mandarin Chinese should be distinguishedand they have different derivational processes. Mandarin bi-phrasal comparatives arederived from DOC-comparatives via some syntactic movements, similar to Larson’s(1988b) analysis of English double object construction. The bi-phrase of phrasalcomparatives is derived by Argument Demotion; hence, such an analysis differs fromthe conventionally adopted clausal comparative analysis in which all bi-comparativescan be derived by ellipsis. However, in the clausal comparative analysis, bi-clausalcomparatives are derived by bi-clauses that are post-cyclically adjoined to the mainclause and subsequently undergo PF-deletion operation. Thirdly, in line withKennedy’s (2005,2007a) three testing criteria for comparative sentences---crispjudgments, minimum standard gradable adjectives and differential measurements, thethesis holds that Mandarin bi-comparatives is related to explicit comparison, even though it does not exhibit a comparative morphology such as the English–er or moremorpheme. In addition, the degree-based analysis in English can also be applied to thesemantic analysis of bi-phrasal and bi-clausal comparatives in Mandarin Chinese.The study is of significance in the following aspects. Firstly, it provides a newproposal for the type of standard introduce by bi in Mandarin Chinese, furthermore, itdiffers from the conventionally adopted clausal comparative analysis in which allbi-comparatives can be derived by ellipsis. Secondly, the phrasal/clausal distinctionproposed in the thesis can better explain the behavior and nature of the syntacticstructure of Mandarin comparative construction. Thirdly, the new syntactic andsemantic analysis of bi-comparatives in the thesis makes contribution to the study ofcomparative construction in other languages.