A Corpus-based Contrastive Study of Shell Nouns Complement Constructions in English and Chinese Academic Writing

Abstract

Shell Nouns Complement Constructions (SNCCs) play a central role in packaging complex information and encoding authorial stance. Previous studies have mainly focused on their classification, stylistics distribution, and cross-linguistic difference in SNCCs use among different groups of writers. Less attention, however, has paid to how the same group of L1 Chinese scholars redistribute constructional resources across different publication contexts. Through the lens of usage-based construction grammar, this study investigates whether SNCCs preferences reflect stable authorial tendencies or context adaptation by comparing Chinese and English research articles written by the same group of Chinese applied linguistics scholars. This research is conducted on the self-built corpus, consisting of research articles published by 13 Chinese applied linguistics scholars in prestigious Chinese and English journals.

The findings indicated that: 1) although clausal complement was the dominant construction family in both contexts, Chinese publications showed a stronger concentration on this construction, whereas English publications demonstrated a significantly higher proportion of verbal complements. No significant contextual difference was found for eventive complements. 2) SNCC preferences should not be understood solely as stable individual writing styles. Instead, constructional choices represent context-sensitive resource allocation shaped by the interaction between authors’ habitual tendencies and publication environments. This study aims to provide strategies for using shell noun complement constructions in English and Chinese.