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In:Corpus-based Approaches to Construction Grammar
Edited by Jiyoung Yoon and Stefan Th. Gries
[Constructional Approaches to Language 19] 2016
► pp. 201–240

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A multifactorial analysis of that/zero alternation

The diachronic development of the zero complementizer with think, guess and understand

 | Bangor University
ORCiD logo with link | University College Ghent
 | Ghent University
Published online: 8 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.19.08sha
This corpus-based study uses a stepwise logistic regression analysis to examine the diachronic development of that/zero alternation with three verbs of cognition, viz. think, guess and understand in both spoken and written corpora from 1560–2012. Eleven structural features which have been claimed in the literature to predict the presence of the zero complementizer form are tested to see if (1) there is indeed a diachronic trend towards more zero use, (2) whether the conditioning factors proposed in the literature indeed predict the zero form, (3) to what extent these factors interact and (4) whether the predictive power of the conditioning factors becomes stronger or weaker over time. The analysis disproves the hypothesis that there has been an overall diachronic development towards more zero use and that the interactions with verb type brings to light differences between verbs in terms of the predictive power of the individual structural features.
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