Abstract:

This paper is a corpus-based and typological investigation into the R_AP constraints on English and Chinese resultative constructions within the framework of cognitive-functional theories. It finds that there are some similarities and differences in R_AP constraints between English and Chinese resultative constructions: both English and Chinese Control resultative constructions can take open-scale adjectives, while Chinese subject-oriented ECM resultative constructions are selective in taking open-scale adjectives and their object-oriented ones are rare in taking open-scale adjectives; all English and Chinese resultative constructions are open to maximum end-point closed-scale adjectives and nongradable adjective. The paper also shows that all kinds of Chinese resultative constructions are open to maximum end-point closed-scale adjectives while their English counterparts are selective in this aspect; that R_AP takes a monosyllabic preference; that English and Chinese belong to the same type of language in terms of R_AP selection; that English and Chinese resultative constructions mainly differ in selecting minimum end-point closed-scale adjectives and open-scale adjectives, and in the semantic preference of R_AP and the asymmetry in Verb-Adjective combination. The paper argues that the above similarities and difference result from the negotiation of adjective prototypicality, language typology and construal.