On the Semantics of Comparative Correlatives in Mandarin Chinese
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Abstract
The main objective of this article is to provide a formal semantics of comparative correlatives of the form ‘yuè …, (jiù ) yuè … ’ in Mandarin Chinese. A new analysis is proposed which treats the comparative correlatives as one which involves a quantificational tripartite structure and which derives all the meanings of the ‘yuè …, (jiù) yuè … ’ constructions through a comparison of degrees which relate to different or same individuals. The comparison of the same or different degrees of a given property is shown to be the consequences of the general processing strategy for noun phrase interpretations suggested by Partee, as well as of the constituent structure of the sentence. It is also shown that the same semantics for Chinese yuè can be extended to the -er in English comparative conditionals, as well as to similar constructions in other languages. At the same time a superficial cross-linguistic variation from independent factors can also be derived.
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