| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 外國文學與語言學碩士班 === 97 === The purpose of this thesis is to study the syntactic representation and semantic interpretation of the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative. This type of comparative has its unique syntactic and semantic properties. More specifically, there are selectional restrictions between the measure phrase yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ and the degree adverb shaowei ‘slightly’, but it is not possible for yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ and shaowei ‘slightly’ to appear together. Beside, yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ is obligatorily required while shaowei ‘slightly’ and the referential NP functioning as the target of comparison are optionally required.
In this thesis, we deal with the following questions that any analysis of the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative must address: First, how can we accommodate the selectional restrictions between yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ and shaowei ‘slightly’ as well as the obligatory nonadjacency between yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ and shaowei ‘slightly’ in a single structure? Second, why is yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ obligatorily required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative? Third, why is shaowei ‘slightly’ optionally required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative? Fourth, why is the referential NP functioning as the target of comparison optionally required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative?
Following Bhatt and Pancheva’s (2004) analysis of English comparatives and Liu’s (2007) analysis of the X A (Y) D comparative, we propose that shaowei ‘slightly’ is merged countercyclically as the complement of the covert quantificational operator binding yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’, which is treated as a variable, after the covert quantificational operator adjoins to ExP. This proposal is supported by the evidence related to intervention effects on NPIs and A-not-A operators. Moreover, shaowei ‘slightly’, which is the syntactic argument of the covert quantificational operator, is optionally required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative. Then, following Liu’s (2007) analysis of the X A (Y) D comparative, we propose that the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative contains the covert verbal suffix –ex, which is grammaticalized from its overt counterpart –guo ‘exceed’. Grammaticalization makes the semantic content of –ex bleached to such an extent that –ex cannot function as a predicate strong enough to restrict the interval argument of the adjective. This makes yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’, which is the only expression available to restrict the interval argument of the adjective, obligatorily required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative. Grammaticalization also makes the semantic content of the covert verbal suffix –ex so bleached that the transitivity force of –ex is weak. This makes the referential NP functioning as the target of comparison optionally required in the X shaowei A Y yi-dianer/yi-xie comparative. Finally, we argue that although both degree adverbs belonging to the weak group of the second type and degree adverbs belonging to the strong group of the third type can take yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ as a post-adjectival pseudo-object in Type I-IV comparative constructions, these degree adverbs restrict the interval argument of the adjective instead of having a selectional relation with yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’ (see Lu and Ma 1999). Likewise, in Chinese bi comparatives which contain the bi-constituent and yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’, the degree adverb saturates the interval argument of the adjective rather than have a selectional relation with yi-dianer/yi-xie ‘a little’.
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