The bǐ comparative: the confluence of comparison and contrast

Abstract The Chinese bǐ comparative, a type of contrastive focus construction blending comparison and contrast, has two types: phrasal and clausal, distinguished by the number of contrasted pairs. In both, the bǐ phrase, as an adjunct, must adjoin to the left of the predicate due to the Condition on Adjunct Distribution. The clausal bǐ comparative, closely tied to contrastive ellipsis syntactically, must satisfy the Direct Dominance Condition, the Minimal Redundancy Requirement, and the Parallelism Requirement, ensuring each item in the standard clause is c-commanded by its counterpart in the target clause. These constraints reflect the syntax of contrastive ellipsis rather than being arbitrary. Moreover, because of the Condition on Adjunct Distribution, comparative ellipsis applies backward, with the elided site behaving like a deep-anaphora-like surface anaphora.