A Contrastive Study On "X Have Y Done" And "X Have Done Y" Constructions From Construction Grammar Perspective

Former researches believed that the “X have done Y” and the “X have Y done”constructions are semantically related because they either state that the former is grammaticalized from the latter,or hold that the latter is the prototypical variant of the former.However,under the condition that certain English verbs can enter both of the constructions,their semantic differences are hard to be identified.Therefore,a deeper contrastive study is expected to better understand their similarities and differences.This study selects 1326 cases of “X have Y done” construction and 1852 cases of“X have done Y” construction ranging from the years of 1600 s to 2010 s.Based on Construction Grammar Theory,the verb types entering the two constructions,interactive relations between verbs and constructions,and the semantic links between the two constructions are presented from the diachronic and synchronic perspectives.Three major findings are given: 1)Diachronically,the activity verbs entered the two constructions as early as the decades of 1630 s sharing the same semantic developmental paths.On the contrary,although accomplishment verbs entering the two constructions share similar developmental paths,their semantic features designated quite differ;2)As for the interactive relations between verbs and constructions,when achievement verbs are involved,co-occurring activity relation is formed.If state verbs are involved,precondition relation is formed.However,because the construction profiles both causative and resultative meanings,when activity verbs or achievement verbs enter to interact with either of the two meanings,different relations,including precondition,causal or force dynamic ones become salient alternatively;3)Reconsidering the relations between the two constructions,polysemy and instance relation are freshly identified in their respective variants of the two constructions.A diachronic contrast between the two constructions helps to take a fresher look into their relations and a synchronic perspective under the Construction Grammar framework is very insightful for English learners to profoundly understand the semantic distinctions between the two constructions.