Typological interpretation of differences between Chinese and English in grammatical metaphor

This paper provides a typological interpretation of differences between Chinese and English in grammatical metaphor (GM), a phenomenon arising from the interaction of semantics and lexicogrammar and extending the meaning potential in a language. This paper first describes typological features in Chinese and English in terms of the three variables relevant most to the lexicogrammatical realization of a semantic meaning, namely the order of grammatical constituents, the degree of grammatical specificity and the location of grammatical realization. On the basis of the description of typological features, this paper explores the GM differences in Chinese and English and their inherent reasons from three perspectives: (1) the formal distance between congruent and metaphorical expressions, (2) the subdivision of certain GM categories and (3) the extent of using GM. The study reveals that all the GM differences observed are engendered by one or more than one typological variation between Chinese and English.