The Syntax of Bi-Comparatives in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

在前人的基礎上，本文主要是從句法的視角探索漢語比字比較句的結構。文章首先對此結構中的句法和語義特徵進行了考察與描述，據此提出此結構為子句比較句的構想。基於其句法表現，“比”可以視為一種具有介詞特性的補語連詞，並投射出一個完整的子句。“比”的功能在於引介比較的對象。結構中的形容詞會投射其程度詞組。“比”所引介的子句加接至程度詞組的指示語位置，藉以滿足與限制形容詞的程度論元。在“比”所引介的子句中，牽涉刪略的成分具有形容詞詞組或動詞詞組的語法屬性。本文的思路一方面支持子句比較句的分析，另一方面可以為比較句刪略的研究提供進一步的參考。

The study attempts to propose a syntactic account of bi-comparatives in Mandarin Chinese under the generative framework. Bi plays a role reminiscent of a prepositional complementizer projecting a self-completed clause (Hsing 2003, Chung 2006), a preverbal adjunct in the wake of Liu (1996). Following Abney (1987), Kennedy (1997), Kennedy & Merchant (1997), it is suggested that a gradable adjective projects an extended functional structure DegP headed by a degree morpheme in the bi-comparative. The adjunction of the bi-clause onto the SpecDegP is triggered by the need to saturate and restrict the degree argument of the adjective (Liu 2007ab, 2010c). An adjective or verb phrase within the bi-clause is deleted. By studying bi-comparatives in depth, this study not only can shed light on the clausal analysis of bi-comparatives, but also provide useful data for future research on Comparative Deletion (Bresnan 1973, 1975).