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Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies
ISSN 0577-9170; DOI 10.6503/THJCS

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On Arguments against Comparative Deletion in Mandarin

Vol. 47 No.2  6/2017

Title

On Arguments against Comparative Deletion in Mandarin

Author

I-Ta Chris Hsieh

Genre

Article

Pages

255-287

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PDF

Language

English

Key words

-comparatives, comparative deletion, ellipsis, dōu-adjunction

Abstract

  In this paper, I discuss some arguments presented in the previous research against the deletion-based account (i.e., the Reduction Analysis) of the Mandarin -comparative, which include the lack of the subcomparative, the lack of the embedded standard, and the distribution of the quantificational adverb dōu in this construction. Working with an Agree-based theory of selection and a featural account of PF-deletion, I show that a deletion-based account does capture these facts. The proposal is built on the assumptions that i) deletion may rescue some illegitimate representations caused by uninterpretable features at PF (Wurmbrand 2014; see also Merchant 2009; Bošković 2011; and others) and ii) the -constituent contains a small clause (i.e., vP) and lacks all the higher functional clausal heads (e.g., T, Asp, Mod, etc.) (cf. Pancheva 2006).

 

Author: I-Ta Chris Hsieh
Genre: Article
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