Semantics and Morphosyntactic Variation: The Case of Scalar Equatives in English and Mandarin

Although scalar equatives in English and Mandarin share a common set of semantic building blocks, and express similar truth conditions, there are a variety of morphosyntactic differences between them.These differences can be reduced to different conceptualizations of degree: one type of degree refers to abstract representation of measurement, corresponding to points, while the other type of degree refers to nominalized properties, corresponding to kinds.Comparatives adopting the former rely on the (asymmetrical) ordering of points, while the comparatives that adopt the latter recur to comparison of similarity of properties.This analysis correctly predicts the difference in syntax and semantics between English and Mandarin equatives: unlike English, Mandarin scalar equatives should be analyzed as modificational structures, which adopt intersective semantics in semantic composition.This article argues for a transparent relationship between variation in form and variation in meaning, and demonstrates that semantics plays a rather direct role in explaining certain cross-linguistic morphosyntactic variations.