本論文探討漢語中表示充足(sufficiency)和過量(excess)的結構之句法及語意結構。在英語中，充足和過量分別可藉由enough…to和too…to來表達。這兩種結構都可表達兩項程度值之間的比較：第一個程度值為比較句中的個體，在可分級的形容詞(gradable adjective)上所表達的維度有關；第二個程度值與某個上下限有關。在漢語中，充足和過量可藉由語素「到」的句式來表示。例如：「約翰高到可以摸到天花板」表示約翰的身高超過了「能摸到天花板」的最低程度。又例如：「約翰高到不能睡在這張床上」表示約翰的身高超過了「能睡在這張床上」的最高程度。
有別於Liu (2006)沿用Huang (1999)，將在「到」之後的成分出現的空位分析為隱性代名詞，在這篇論文中，我提出在「到」的句式結構中，位於「到」之後的成分涉及隱性算子(covert operator)的移位：提出此主張是因為，在此成分中，賓語空位表現出對孤島效應的敏感度。
沿用Meier (2003)對英語enough…to及too…to結構的語意分析，我進一步提議「到」具有詞彙歧義(lexically ambiguous)。具體來說，可分為「到1」和「到2」：「到1」的語意和英語的enough相同，而「到2」，連同其之後的否定在內，一起產生出和英語too…to結構相同的語意。正如同Meier (2003)採用Kratzer (1981, 1991)關於條件句語意，對英語的enough…to和too…to結構提出的分析，我認為「到1」和「到2」也都具有表示條件的語意。最後，我認為與Penka (2012)的分析相似，「到1」和「到2」的出現受制於語義格式的正確性(well-formedness)和形態句法(morpho-syntactic)約束的語義約束(semantic constraint)。

This thesis concerns the syntax and semantics of the constructions that express sufficiency and excess in Mandarin. In English, sufficiency and excess in degree comparison may be expressed by enough…to and too…to respectively (e.g., John is tall enough to touch the ceiling/John is too tall to sleep in this bed; Meier (2003), Hacquard (2004) among others). Both constructions express the comparison between two degree values: one is the degree the individual in comparison is associated with along the dimension expressed by the gradable adjective in the construction, and the other has to do with the upper bound or the lower bound. The constructions are expressed via the morpheme dao; for instance, the Mandarin counterpart of John tall able-to touch the ceiling expresses that Johns height passes the minimum degree required for one to touch the ceiling, and that of John tall NEG able-to sleep in this bed expresses that John’s height passes the maximal degree on height that is allowed for one to sleep in this bed.
In this thesis, I suggest that in the dao-construction, the derivation of the post-dao constituent involves the movement of a covert operator; the main argument for this claim comes from the island sensitivity on the object gap in this constituent. This is where my proposal departs from Liu (2006), who suggests that the gap in the post-dao constituent should be analyzed as the covert pronoun Pro along lines of Huang (1999).
Along with Meier’s (2003) semantics for English enough…to and too…to, I further suggest that dao in these constructions is lexically ambiguous between what I call dao1 and dao2; while the semantic contribution of dao1 is the same as English enough, dao2 together with negation in the post-dao constituent gives rise to the meaning of English too…to. Both dao1 and dao2 carry a conditional meaning, which as Meier (2003) suggests for English enough…to and too…to, may be captured with Kratzer’s (1981, 1991) conditional semantics. I further suggest that the occurrences of dao1 and dao2 is subject to the semantic constraint on semantic well-formedness and morpho-syntactic constraint along the lines of Penka (2012).

Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Background of Enough and Too 1
1.2 Mandarin Dao 5
1.3 Roadmap 8
Chapter 2 The Syntax of the Dao-construction 9
2.1 Liu (2006)’s Analysis on Mandarin Dao 9
2.2 Operator Movement Inside the Dao-clause 13
Chapter 3 The Semantics of Enough and Too 19
3.1 Previous Researches on Enough and Too 19
3.1.1 Heim’s (2000) Analysis on Too 19
3.1.2 Meier’s (2003) Analysis on Enough, Too and So…That 21
3.1.3 Hacquard (2005)’s Analysis on Enough and Too 38
3.2 Comparing Dao with Enough and Too 43
3.2.1 The Problem of Meier (2003) 43
3.2.2 The Problem of Hacquard (2005) 48
3.2.3 Further Discussions on Dao 50
Chapter 4 The Semantics of Dao 56
4.1 The Negative Feature 57
4.1.1 Penka’s (2012) Analysis on Negative Indefinites 58
4.1.2 Proposal 61
4.2 The Conditional Meaning 62
4.2.1 Kratzer’s (2002, 2008) Analysis on Modality and Conditional 62
4.2.2 Conditional Meaning of the Dao-construction 64
4.3 The Semantics of Dao1 66
4.4 The Semantics of Dao2 71
4.5 The Semantic Constraint 76
Chapter 5 Conclusion 80
References 82

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