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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
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