Two Notes on the Chinese bi Comparatives

Instead of jumping into the debate on whether the Chinese bi comparative is a clausal or a phrasal comparative, I argue for the following two points concerning this construction. First, the marker bi is not a degree word; instead, it functions to introduce the standard and forms a pair of correlativ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 2012-05, Vol.38 (1), p.69-91
Main Author: 劉辰生(Luther Chen-Sheng Liu)
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Instead of jumping into the debate on whether the Chinese bi comparative is a clausal or a phrasal comparative, I argue for the following two points concerning this construction. First, the marker bi is not a degree word; instead, it functions to introduce the standard and forms a pair of correlative words with a degree adverb with the meaning of comparison. Second, the standard introduced by bi cannot be elements that can be modified by a degree adverb; otherwise, a conflict between two dimensions of comparison will occur. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:1810-7478
DOI:10.6241/concentric.ling.201205_38(1).0003