Mandarin Chinese, along with Japanese, Yorùbá, Mòoré, and Samoan, has been argued to lack ‘degree abstraction’, a configuration at LF involving lambda abstraction over a degree variable. These languages are claimed to have a negative setting for a hypothesized ‘Degree Abstraction Parameter’. Recent work, however, has argued for degree abstraction in Japanese and Yorùbá, and degree abstraction has been detected in a number of additional languages. Could it in fact be universal? Here, we focus on the case of Mandarin, and argue that Mandarin has degree abstraction too. We offer three arguments in favor of degree abstraction in Mandarin, based on attributive comparatives, comparatives with embedded predicates, and scope interactions with modals. We also rebut prior arguments for the lack of degree abstraction in Mandarin, considering degree questions, measure phrases, and negative island effects. Taken together, these results show that degree abstraction is not a parameter along which Mandarin and English vary, and suggest rather that degree abstraction may be universally available.

普通话、日语、约鲁巴语、摩尔语和萨摩亚语都被认为缺乏“程度抽象”，这是 LF 的一种配置，涉及对程度变量的 lambda 抽象。据称，这些语言对假设的“程度抽象参数”具有负面设置。然而，最近的工作主张日语和约鲁巴语中的程度抽象，并且在许多其他语言中也检测到了程度抽象。它实际上可以通用吗？在这里，我们关注普通话的情况，并认为普通话也有程度的抽象。我们基于定语比较、嵌入谓词的比较以及与情态动词的范围交互，提出了支持普通话程度抽象的三个论据。我们还反驳了先前关于普通话缺乏程度抽象的论点，考虑了程度问题、量词短语和负面岛屿效应。总而言之，这些结果表明，程度抽象并不是普通话和英语变化的参数，并且表明程度抽象可能是普遍可用的。