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In:Changing Structures: Studies in constructions and complementation
Edited by Mark Kaunisto, Mikko Höglund and Paul Rickman
[Studies in Language Companion Series 195] 2018
► pp. 129–149

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The use of optional complement markers in present-day English

The role of passivization and other complexity factors

 | University of Paderborn
Published online: 22 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.195.08roh
This paper reports on the results of a corpus-based study exploring several major types of omissible complement clause markers. Throughout, the distribution of rival variants with or without these markers is accounted for in terms of the Complexity Principle correlating processing complexity and grammatical explicitness. The focus is on the use of passivized matrix verbs as well as other complexity factors in the active, which favour the more explicit variants containing the function words in question. At the same time, the paper registers, wherever practical and instructive, any parallels and differences between British and American English. In most cases, the variation phenomena in question are the result of ongoing developments either introducing or reducing the use of the relevant function words.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The complementizer that
    • 2.1Verb-dependent complement clauses
    • 2.2Noun-dependent complement clauses
  • 3.Infinitive marking
  • 4.Modal should in mandative complements
  • 5.The variable use of from introducing gerundial complements
    • 5.1Negative verbs of causation like put off
    • 5.2The particle verb hold off
  • 6.Interrogative complement clauses
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
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ROMASANTA, RAQUEL P.
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2022. Juho Ruohonen and Juhani Rudanko, Infinitival vs gerundial complementation with afraid, accustomed, and prone: Multivariate corpus studies. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. Pp. xiii + 161. ISBN 9783030567576.. English Language and Linguistics 26:4 ► pp. 929 ff. DOI logo
Rohdenburg, Günter
2021. Ambiguity Avoidance by Means of Function Words in English? Providing Additional Corpus-based Counterevidence. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 69:3 ► pp. 207 ff. DOI logo
BERG, THOMAS, TIM ZINGLER & ARNE LOHMANN
2020. The range of linguistic units: Distance effects in English mandative subjunctive constructions. Journal of Linguistics 56:2 ► pp. 231 ff. DOI logo
García‐Castro, Laura
2020. Finite and non‐finite complement clauses in postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes 39:3 ► pp. 411 ff. DOI logo
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