Some binominal size noun constructions in English and French: a contrastive corpus-based perspective

Abstract

This paper compares binominal size noun constructions in English and French from a contrastive perspective based on analysis of parallel and monolingual corpus data. It is argued that, even though there are structural similarities between the constructions in both languages, there are differences in the frequency of their use and constructional equivalence is only partial. There are differences in terms of premodification potential, which can be explained by typological differences between the two languages. Another difference lies in the formal reflexes and agreement features, which is again in keeping with the typological profiles of both languages. Translation equivalence is also typically only partial and depends on the use (e.g. quantifier versus head use).