The Constraints of Grammatical System on Constructions: The Motivations for the Different Comparison Constructions in Chinese and English

Through analyzing the differences and commonalities of the comparison constructions in English and Chinese, this paper reveals that the usages of concrete constructions are governed by the overall system of the grammar of a particular language. When the degree of adjectives and the adverbials of verbs are compared, Chinese has to transform the predicate into a ‘verb-resultative’ construction while English keeps the same ‘adverbial-verb’. Moreover, Chinese has certain ‘verb-object’ constructions which serve to express comparison, but English does not have such equivalent. The ‘verb-resultative’ in Chinese is extremely productive and frequently used, and, consequently, a new information organizing principle for sentences emerges in the language. This principle requires that any resultative constituents must appear after the verb or adjective as a complement. By contrast, English does not have such an organizing principle. The present analysis is helpful for understanding the two grammars of Chinese and English. In the meantime, it makes a crucial contribution to the theory of constructions, revealing the interaction between specific constructions and the whole grammatical system.