The Influence of Translation on Modern Chinese in Load Capacity: A Case Study of “Prep....Localizer” Construction

Based on a diachronic comparison between translated and original Chinese in early 20th century and recent 20 years, this article reports on a study of the load capacity of the "prep.(preposition)...localizer" construction, assuming that the sudden expansion of structures' load capacity in modern Chinese couldn't find a felicitous account in language-internal factors, and it might find an explanation in language-contact, or specifically, the influence of English-Chinese translation. The research findings suggest that expansion of the construction's load capacity is mainly manifested by longer and more complicated attributives modifying head words, and the semantic and syntactic expansion of head words, as a result of both indirect language contact and the internal need of original Chinese for development. However, expansion of load capacity is only restricted under the constraint of original Chinese through its self-adjustment process.