The Syntactic Analysis and Comparison of Comparative Sentences Using Prepositions “bi” in Chinese and “Kwa” in Thai

Abstract

The words “bi” and “Kwa” are the prepositions used frequently in Chinese and in Thai comparative sentences. This article aimed to analyze and compare the similarities and the differences of comparative sentence structures that use “bi” in Chinese and “Kwa” in Thai with the same syntax. This was in order to make the learners understand how to use them correctly. In terms of the basic sentence structure, the difference is in the placement of each word in sentences. According to the Thai comparative sentence structure, the sentence pattern is “Subject+ the word that shows comparison (Verb or Adjective)+Kwa+Objective”. In Chinese, on the contrary, the basic comparative sentence structure is “Subject + bi + Objective + the word that shows comparison (Verb or Adjective)”. Basically if there are phrases or words that are related to the quantity or numbers in Chinese se   ntences, they are often placed after adjectives or verbs, but in Thai comparative sentence structure, they are placed after the objectives or verbs. If there are adverbs such as “hai” or “geng” In Chinese sentence structure, these words are always placed in front of the verb or the adjective.  In Thai comparative sentence structure, on the other hand, the word “ยิ่ง” will be placed after the verb or adjective, for “ยัง” is placed in front of the verb or the adjective. In Chinese comparative sentence, when one use the verb as predicate, the adverbs such as zao เช้า / wan สาย / duo มาก / shao น้อย etc. are always placed in front of the verb. Whereas in Thai comparative sentence, the adverbs เช้า / สาย / มาก / น้อย will be put behind the verb.  However, the placing of the word “de" (ได้) in Chinese sentence can be placed in two different places, for example, “wo bi ni pao de kuai” or “wo pao de bi ni kuai” and the meaning remain the same. However, the placing of the word “de" (ได้) at different places in the comparative sentence will have different points of emphasis. That is to say, in the first sentence, it emphasizes the difference of the things compared. In the second sentence, it emphasizes the degree of the predicate which cannot be found in Thai comparative sentence.