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- Title
Exploring change in the system of English predicate complementation, with evidence from corpora of recent English.
- Authors
Rudanko, Juhani
- Abstract
There are robust grammatical differences between to infinitive and to -ing complements in English, but some predicates have exhibited variation between the two patterns. This study examines one such predicate, the adjective accustomed, and the focus is on the period around the end of the nineteenth century, when the to -ing pattern was starting to emerge as a rival to the to infinitive pattern. The period is studied on the basis of the third part of the Corpus of Late Modern English Texts. Attention is paid to extraction as a syntactic factor bearing on complement selection. From a semantic point of view, the notion of a sense of choice on the part of the referent of the subject is then examined as a semantic property, and it is argued that lack of a sense of choice was associated with the emerging pattern. The article also inquires into the complement selection of the adjective in a corresponding corpus of present-day English, showing that the to -ing pattern is now the rule even in contexts linked to a lack of choice. At the same time, the adjective has become much less frequent in the language.
- Subjects
ENGLISH language -- Variation; ENGLISH infinitives; SEMANTICS; ENGLISH adjectives; CORPORA
- Publication
Language & Computers, 2009, Vol 69, Issue 1, p365
- ISSN
0921-5034
- Publication type
Article