Typological Differences between English and Chinese Multi-verb Constructions

Abstract

English and Chinese are different in the composition of Multi-verb Constructions (MVCs), which refer to a series of verbs appearing in a mono-clause, without pauses or conjunctions. English MVCs contain a finite verb which inflects with tense, combined with non-finite forms (e.g., The boss encouraged Jerry to attend the meeting). Chinese MVCs are in the form of bare verbs or verbs with aspectual morphemes. From the perspective of finiteness, this article analyzes the typological differences of morphological finiteness in English and semantic finiteness in Chinese.