Cover not available
Part of
New Explorations in Chinese Theoretical Syntax: Studies in honor of Yen-Hui Audrey Li
Edited by Andrew Simpson
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 272] 2022
► pp. 249–292

Chinese comparatives

Commentary on clausal vs. phrasal analyses

This article aims to make a contribution to the recent debate between the phrasal and clausal analyses of Chinese comparatives, focusing on Lin (2009) for the phrasal approach and Liu (2011, 2014), Hsieh (2017) and Erlewine (2018) for the clausal approach. I show that problems such as lack of independent support for the rule of backward predicate deletion, subcomparatives, embedded standards and verbal comparatives remain difficult challenges to the new clausal analyses and that counter-arguments against the phrasal approach do not necessarily hold. To the contrary, a fine tuning of Lin’s original phrasal analysis of bi not only avoids an important criticism made by Liu (2011) but can be extended to analyze verbal-comparatives in a way that the clausal analyses cannot.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Recent analyses of Chinese comparatives
  • 3.Challenges to the clausal approach
    • 3.1Problems with comparative deletion
    • 3.2Problems with subcomparatives and embedded standards
      • 3.2.1Liu’s (2011) new answer and its problems
      • 3.2.2Hsieh’s (2017) solution and its problems
    • 4.3Erlewine’s (2018) account and problems
  • 5.Remarks on arguments against the phrasal analysis
    • 5.1Arguments based on complex predicate constructions
    • 5.2Erlewine’s (2018) Arguments based on movement chains
  • 6.Liu’s (2011) arguments against Lin’s (2009) analysis
    • 6.1 Rang-constructions
    • 6.2Reason clauses
    • 6.3Object comparison in multiple standard comparatives
  • 7.A Revision of Lin (2009)
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.272.09lin
References
Bartos, Huba
2019 The V-copy construction in Mandarin: A case temporally reopened. In Interfaces in Grammar, Jianhua Hu & Haihua Pan (eds), 167–205. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bender, Emily
2000 The syntax of Mandarin ba: reconsidering the verbal analysis. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 9(2): 105–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhatt, Rajesh & Pancheva, Roumyana
2004 Late merger of degree clauses. Linguistic Inquiry 35(1):1–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhatt, Rajesh & Takahashi, Shoichi
2007 Direct comparisons: Resurrecting the direct analysis of phrasal comparatives. In Proceedings of SALT 17, Tova Friedman & Masayuki Gibson (eds), 19–36. Ithaca: Cornell University. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Reduced and unreduced phrasal comparatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(3): 581–620. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, Joan
1973 Syntax of the comparative clause construction in English. Linguistic Inquiry 4(3): 275–343.Google Scholar
1975 Comparative deletion and constraints on transformations. Linguistic Analysis1(1): 25–74.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen
2007 Verb copying in Mandarin Chinese. In The Copy Theory of Movement, Norbert Corver & Jairo Nunes (eds), 151–174. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1977 On wh-movement. In Formal Syntax, Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow & Adrian Akmajian (eds), 71–132. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cresswell, M. J.
1976 The semantics of degree. In Montague grammar, Barbara Hall Partee (ed), 261–292. New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka
2007 A New Syntax-Semantics for the Mandarin Bi Comparative. MA thesis, University of Chicago.
2018 Clausal comparison without degree abstraction in Mandarin Chinese. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 36(2):445–482. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ernst, Thomas & Wang, Chengchi
1995 Object preposing in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 4(3): 235–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goodall, Grant
1986 On argument structure and L-marking with Chinese ba. In Proceedings of NELS 17, Bernadette Plunket & Joyce McDonough (eds), 232–242. Amherst: Graduate Linguistics Student Association.Google Scholar
Gu, Yang & Guo, Jie
2015 On the internal structure of comparative constructions: From Chinese and Japanese to English. In Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective, Yenhui Audrey Li, Andrew Simpson & Weitien Dylan Tsai (eds), 334–374. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Guo, Jie
2012 Form and meaning: Chinese adjectives and comparative constructions. PhD dissertation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Guo, Jie & Gu, Yang
2017 Hanyu bijiaoju yinjieci de gongneng tezheng zaixi [The properties of standard introducers in Chinese comparative constructions revisited]. Yuyan Kexue 16(6): 586–597.Google Scholar
Heim, Irene
1985 Notes on comparatives and related matters. Unpublished manuscript, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
2000 Degree operators and scope. In Proceedings of SALT 10, Brendan Jackson & Tanya Matthews (eds), 40–64. Ithaca: Cornell University. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, I-Ta Chris
2017 On arguments against comparative deletion in Mandarin.Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 47(2): 255–287.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James
1982 Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1988  Wo pao de kuai and Chinese phrase structure. Language 64 (2): 274–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 Chinese passives in comparative perspective. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 29: 423–509.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James, Li, Y.-H. Audrey & Li, Yafei
2009 The Syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher
1997 Projecting the adjective: The syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.
2001 Polar opposition and the ontology of ‘degrees’. Linguistics and Philosophy 24(1):33–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher & McNally, Louise
2005 Scale structure, degree modification and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81(2):345–381. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher
2007 Modes of comparison. In Proceedings of CLS 43, Malcolm Elliott, James Kirby, Osamu Sawada, Eleni Staraki & Suwon Yoon (eds), 141–165. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Koopman, Hilda
1984 The syntax of verbs: from verb movement rules in the Kru languages to universal grammar. PhD dissertation, Tilburg University.
Lechner, Winfried
2001 Reduced and phrasal comparatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 19(4):683–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Shan
1994  Xiandai Hanyu Beiziju Yanjiu [A Study of Passives in Modern Chinese]. Beijing: Beijing Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Li, Y.-H. Audrey
1990  Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese . Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Li, Xiao
2015 Degreeless comparatives: the semantics of differential verbal comparatives in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Semantics 32(1): 1–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang
1998 Distributivity in Chinese and its implications. Natural Language Semantics 6(2): 201–243. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang
2009 Chinese comparatives and their implicational parameters. Natural Language Semantics 17(1): 1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Chen-Sheng Luther
1996 A note on Chinese comparatives. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 26: 215–235.Google Scholar
2011 The Chinese bi comparative. Lingua 121(12): 1767–1795. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Comparatives. In The handbook of Chinese linguistics, C.-T. James Huang, Y.-H. Audrey Li & Andrew Simpson (eds), 342–366.Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luo, Qiongpeng
2011  Mei and dou in Chinese: A tale of two quantifiers. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 9(2): 111–158.Google Scholar
2017 Hanyu “bi” zi bijiaoju de jufa han yuyi wenti [The syntax and semantics of Mandarin bi comparatives]. Xiandai Waiyu 3: 324–335.Google Scholar
Merchant, Jason
2001 The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the theory of Ellipsis. New York : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2008 Variable Island Repair under Ellipsis. In Topics in Ellipsis, Kyle Johnson (ed), 132–153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Montague, Richard
1973 The proper treatment of quantification in ordinary English. In Approaches to Natural Language, K.J.J. Hintikka, J.M.E. Moravcsik & P. Suppes (eds), 221–242. Dordrecht: Reidel. Reprinted in Montague 1974, 247–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, Waltraud
1993 A non-deletion account of the comparative construction in Mandarin Chinese. Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale 22 (1): 9–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Sentence-internal topics in Mandarin Chinese: The case of object preposing. Language and Linguistics 3 (4): 695–714.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David & Torrego, Esther
2007 The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features. In Phrasal and Clausal Architecture: Syntactic Derivation and Interpretation, Simin Karimi, Vida Samiian & Wendy K. Wilkins (eds), 262–294. Amsterdam : John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rullmann, Hotze
1995 Maximality in the semantics of wh-constructions. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Schwarzschild, Roger & Wilkinson, Karina
2002 Quantifiers in comparatives: A semantics of degree based on intervals. Natural Language Semantics 10(1):1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shi, Dingxu
2005 “Bei” ziju de guishu [On “bei” passives in Chinese]. Hanyu Xuebao 1: 38–48.Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint
1999 The Mandarin VP. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tang, Sze-wing
2010 Xingshi Hanyu Jufaxue [Formal Chinese Syntax]. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing house.Google Scholar
Travis, Lisa
1984 Parameters and effects of word order variation. PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tsao, Feng-fu
1989 Comparison in Chinese: A topic-comment approach. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 19(1):151–189.Google Scholar
von Stechow, Arnim
1984a Comparing semantic theories of comparison. Journal of Semantics 3(1–2):1–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1984b My reaction to Cresswell’s, Hellan’s, Hoeksema’s and Seuren’s comments. Journal of Semantics 3(1–2):183–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xiang, Ming
2003 A phrasal analysis of Chinese comparatives. In Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 39, Number 1, 739–754. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
2005 Some topics in comparative constructions. PhD dissertation, Michigan State University.
Yue-Hashimoto, Anne
1971 Mandarin syntactic structures. Unicorn 8:1–149. Princeton: Chinese Linguistics Project and Seminar, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Zou, Ke
1993 The syntax of the Chinese Ba construction. Linguistics 31(4): 715–736. DOI logoGoogle Scholar