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Journal of Semantics Advance Access originally published online on April 21, 2007
Journal of Semantics 2007 24(2):169-213; doi:10.1093/jos/ffm001
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

On the Semantics of Comparative Correlatives in Mandarin Chinese

Jo-Wang Lin

National Chiao Tung University

Correspondence: Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures National Chiao Tung University 1001 Ta Hsueh Road Hsinchu 300 Taiwan email: jowang{at}mail.nctu.edu.tw


  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.

Received for publication 19 June 2006. Revision received 18 October 2006. Accepted for publication 26 December 2006.


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