Negative Forms Of Bi-Sentence In Modern Chinese Language

Comparison is a fundamental human cognitive approach.Due to the differences between objects compared,the results,as "analogy,similarity,or differentiation",can be expressed by varying sentence patterns in linguistics.Among the above,differences by "differentiation"belongs to the study of discrepant comparative construction,of which comparative sentences are the main components.In reality,the positive comparative sentences and negative comparative sentences are contrasting but asymmetric in their presence.Based on natural logic,negation of "A>B" is affirmation of "A=B or A<B".However,it is found that two semantic meanings,heavily depends on the context,are generated when negative markers,Bu and Mei(you),are combined with comparison sentences.This paper investigates two types of negative comparison sentences led by Bu and Mei(you).Four sub-sets of negative comparison sentences can be identified according to their construction and semantics.They are "A+Bu+bi(Chinese comparison marker in Pinyin)+B+X","A+Bu+bi+B+X+NP","A?Mei(you)+bi+B+X",and "A+Mei(you)+bi+B+X+NP".This paper characterizes syntactic representation,semantic meaning,and pragmatic function of the four specified types and makes overall comparison of the two major types of negative comparison sentences.Two sub-sets of negative comparison sentences led by Buare"A+Bu+bi+B+X" and "A+Bu+bi+B+X+NP".The negation of these two kinds usually covers the range of the phrase"bi+B+X+(NP)"after Bu.When X is followed by NP with quantity or measure,the focus of negation shifts from X to NP.On semantic preference,the preferred semantic for the first sub-set is "A?X,BX",while the preferred semantic for the second sub-set is "A bi BX,but difference remains subtle".On pragmatic function,it is found that when X is a phrase associated with negative meaning for these two sub-sets,the sentence demonstrates a stronger negative/disputed meaning,and that when X is a phrase associated with positive meaning for these two sub-sets,the sentence demonstrates a explaining and moderately admonishing meaning.The difference here is that the former emphasizes "BX" while the later states"differences exist between A and B".Another two sub-sets of negative comparison sentences are led by Mei(you),as "A+Mei(you)?bi?B?X" and "A?Mei(you)-bi?B?X?NP".These two sub-sets are similar to the above two in terms of syntactic representation,negative scope,and ambiguity of semantics.However,the major difference is that the negation led by Mei(you)is a negation of the overall phrase "bi + B + X + NP",a negation from beginning to end of a dynamic object.Bu andMei(you),as the two most common Chinese negative markers,impart different characteristics to comparison sentences in which when they are used.For these two types of negative comparison sentences,similarities lie in uniformed syntactic representations,identical components in construction,both banned to have number/measure followed by the result term,and both being not absolute negation which changes semantic meaning when negative scope shifts.The differences between the two are three-folded.First,the resulting term has strong acceptance for consecutive quantity adjective phrase in negative comparison sentences led by Bu,while high in degree of freedom in those led by Mei(you)for discrete quantity verbal phrase.Second,negative comparison sentences led by Bu are usually in present tense while those by Mei(you)are in past tense.Lastly,as for emotional preference,negative comparison sentences led by Bu is stronger in subjective judgements,thus stronger in negation,than those by Mei(you).