English and Chinese existential constructions in contrast: A corpus-based semantic study

Abstract This article contrasts existential constructions in English and Chinese in terms of semantic variability and dimensions of semantic variation, distribution of Definiteness Effect and existentiality on the basis of corpus instances and their contextual features. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses show that: (1) existential construction in English varies more widely than its Chinese counterpart; (2) existential constructions in English and Chinese differ in covert/overt expression of background information, semantics of the existential verb and the noun phrase (NP) whose existence is asserted as well as an interaction between presence of a coda and NP definiteness. Contextual features such as semantics, number, quantification and modifier of NP and covert/overt expression of background information are found to have a significant effect on the distribution of Definiteness Effect. The survey on existentiality indicates that the concept has multiple manifestations in form. Reasons for these linguistic phenomena are discussed from various perspectives.