Language and Linguistics - Volume 24, Issue 1, 2023

In this article, we discuss some fundamental issues as well as several unresolved questions of degree-based theories in contemporary linguistics from the perspective of East Asian languages, with a view to pointing out some directions for future research. We first focus on several controversies surrounding the studies of comparative constructions in the literature, i.e., phrasal comparison vs. clausal comparison, individual comparison vs. degree comparison, big DegP vs. small DegP, the points of cross-linguistic variation, etc. We then expand the discussion to comparative constructions and other degree-related constructions in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and demonstrate how an East Asian perspective offers a novel insight into those controversies and uncovers considerable in-depth commonality underlying a variety of degree-related constructions cross-linguistically. We conclude by suggesting some directions for future within- and cross-linguistic research.

This study investigates the meaning and use of the Japanese utterance comparative expressions sore-yori-(mo) ‘than that’ and nani-yori-(mo) ‘than anything’ and considers the role of comparison in discourse. I argue that sore-yori and nani-yori can compare individuals at the semantic (at-issue) level, but they can also compare utterances (speech acts) at the non-at-issue level (= conventional implicature (CI)) (e.g., Grice 1975; Potts 2005; McCready 2010; Sawada 2010; Gutzmann 2011). The utterance comparative sore-yori conventionally implicates that U in sore-yori(U) is more important than the previous utterance, and the utterance comparative nani-yori conventionally implicates that U in nani-yori(U) is more important than any alternative utterance.

An interesting feature of the utterance comparatives sore-yori-(mo) and nani-yori-(mo) is that their pragmatic functions are quite flexible. As for sore-yori, in some contexts, it can function as a topic-changing expression, but in other contexts it does not. As for nani-yori, when it occurs discourse-initially, it functions like the expression first of all, but when it occurs discourse-finally, it functions as an additive reinforcing expression. I argue that the pragmatic effects of utterance comparative expressions arise based on the interaction between their scalar meanings and the general pragmatic principles of relevance/Question Under Discussion and manner (e.g., Grice 1975; Roberts 1996).

This study demonstrates that in addition to regular comparison and metalinguistic comparison, there is a third type of comparison: utterance comparison, and that the notion of comparison plays an important role in advancing the conversation economically/effectively. Finally, cross-linguistic variations in utterance comparison will also be discussed using English and Korean data.

This paper presents a compositional analysis of the fact that Mandarin individuating classifiers are systematically optional in various degree constructions (see also Lin & Schaeffer 2018 for experimental evidence), by taking a mixed approach incorporating the insights from Chierchia (1998; 2010) that Mandarin nouns denote kind terms and individuating classifiers offer the level of individuation and those from Krifka (1995) that (bare) numerals do not encode the cardinality function. By considering (bare) numerals as degree terms (e.g., Hackl 2001; Nouwen 2010; Rett 2014; Kennedy 2015, among many others), the mixed approach advocated here embraces the hypothesis that the locus of variation between English and Mandarin lies in neither the semantics of nouns nor that of numerals, but in the measure operators: these linguistic elements (including sortal/individuating classifiers) are necessary to mediate between numerals and nouns to avoid the semantic type-mismatch. The proposed analysis of individuating classifiers not only explains the role of Mandarin individuating classifiers in degree constructions (i.e., their syntactic optionality, along with a semantic variation in the dimension of comparison), but also closely connects with Bale & Barner’s (2009) idea about quantity judgments that comparative constructions can be used as a reliable diagnostic of the mass-count distinction in natural languages beyond English. Specifically, the fact that Mandarin unclassified nouns allow both cardinality and non-cardinality monotonic dimensions in a variety of degree constructions based on quantity judgments indicates that they are mass-count neutral; a tentative semantics of Mandarin nouns for their mass-count neutrality is thus suggested. Some factors leading to the individuation of nouns are also discussed.

The article presents a formal analysis of the xiang……yiyang scalar equative construction in Mandarin Chinese (MSEs). In the standard degree-based approach, scalar equatives are widely assumed to express an asymmetrical linear ordering between two degree-denoting descriptions such that the degree to which the comparee possesses is at least as great as the degree to which the standard possesses. However, this standard analysis would fall short of MSEs, which display a cluster of properties that are unexpected on the standard account: (i) MSEs disallow differentials; (ii) MSEs cannot take measure phrases as the standard; (iii) MSEs in general do not license NPIs in the standard phrases, and (iv) MSEs disallow factor phrases that express multiplication of numerical values. We propose that unlike scalar equatives in English (ESEs), where the comparison of equality is based on asymmetrical linear ordering of the degrees as points, MSEs recur to degrees as kinds, and consequently, the comparison of equality in the latter is based on instantiation of the degree-kinds, namely, equality of properties. The commonalities and differences between MSEs and ESEs suggest that, despite the fact that degrees and properties are semantic objects of distinct types, the underlying connection between them runs deep and fundamental.

Mandarin degree adjectives can give rise to a degree achievement reading with the perfective marker le. In this paper, I argue that de-adjectival degree achievements in Mandarin are inchoative statives, whose core meaning component is a reflexive comparative that compares the present state with a previous state in some property of the same individual. My new analysis better captures the facts that de-adjectival degree achievements show variable telicity, that they give rise to stative readings with duration phrases, and that they are compatible with time as a comparative standard. Because the comparison is between two states at different times, a degree-achievement reading can be inferred even though the predicate is stative in semantics.