A Study On The Comparative Construction Between English And Korean

Comparison is a foundational method for humans to perceive the world as well as a pattern of thinking formed in the process of human cognition. The comparative construction is one of constructions to express comparison in both English and Korean, indicating the comparison between two or more things in terms of degree, quantity or property. It is generally composed of comparative subject (NPi), comparative object (NP2), comparative mark (CM), comparative point (NP3) and comparative value (AP/NP). According to Humboldt, English is inflectional language while Korean is agglutinative language, which result in syntactic differences between English and Korean comparative constructions. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the reasons for the syntactic differences based on the analysis of the similarities and differences of syntactic structures between English and Korean comparative constructions.On the syntactic level, based on the classifications of English and Korean comparative constructions, this paper focuses on the analysis of the syntactic positional relationship between NP1and CM, NP2and CM, AP/NP and CM, AP/NP and NP1/NP2. Furthermore, through the comparison of the syntactic restrictive relation of the constituents, it finds out that the distinctions lie in that NP3is covert in English comparative construction while NP3can be overt or covert in Korean comparative construction. Finally, the syntactic property of comparative markers "than" and "-boda" is probed. It is proposed that the differences in the syntactic property of comparative markers that lead to the distinctions in word order, namely, the lexical linear array in English and Korean comparative construction.On the semantic level, this paper illustrates the semantic features of comparative value and meanwhile, explores the semantic relationship between comparative subject and comparative point, comparative value and comparative point. The comparative analysis lead to the conclusions that when comparative value is acted by adverb and noun, the comparative point is covert in both English and Korean comparative constructions; yet, when comparative value is acted by adjective, the comparative point is still covert in English comparative construction while it is overt or covert in Korean comparative construction.In order to further explain the conclusion Chapter Four makes, this paper attempts to dig into the essential attributes of English and Korean adjectives. Conclusions can be drawn that1) from the macro perspective, the semantic reference of adjectives is not clear, which can only be embodied by virtue of entitative lexical items;2) from the micro perspective, the semantic features of stative adjectives in English and Korean are equivalent while those of qualitative adjectives are non-equivalent.