Title

On Arguments against Comparative Deletion in Mandarin

Author

I-Ta Chris Hsieh

Genre

Article

Pages

255-287

Download

PDF

Language

English

Key words

bĭ-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 bǐ-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 bǐ-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).