The Chinese bi comparative

Abstract

Chinese bi comparatives should be divided into two types: phrasal and clausal. In the former, the prepositional subordinator bi introduces as standard of comparison one syntactic constituent that does not involve comparative deletion; in the latter, however, a clause with more than one standard constituent is introduced and this clause obligatorily involves comparative deletion and a degree operator-variable binding relation in syntax. Among the conditions to which building a Chinese bi comparative is subject, two conditions interact to disallow comparative subdeletion: (A) the bi phrase occurs as an adjunct phrase adjoined to the left of the predicate of comparison and (B) the standard constituent must be minimally c-commanded by its corresponding main clause correlate. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.