The Structure of Mandarin Comparatives

In this talk we will explore the syntactic structure of the " phrasal " Mandarin bi comparative. We aim to: • motivate the Mandarin comparative morpheme bi as a v head; • argue against Liu's (1996) PP analysis and Xiang's (2005) DegP analysis on syntactic grounds; • explore a neo-Davidsonian event-based conceptualization of comparison. A comparative generally involves two things to be compared, the target and standard, and a gradable predicate which introduces a scale over which they are compared (predicate of comparison). There are broadly two widely-accepted analyses of the syntax of English adjectival comparatives: Here, the English comparative morpheme "-er " is a Degree node which selects a standard (than-phrase). This Degree phrase is an adjunct of the adjective. AP DegP Deg-er ThanP than standard AP predicate of comparison 1.2 The DegP analysis (Kennedy, 1997) Kennedy (1997) argues for the comparative morpheme (again a Degree) selecting the adjective , with the than-phrase introduced as an adjunct.