On the transitive "out of -ing" complementation pattern in contemporary spoken American English: A corpus-based study

Abstract

The goals of this article are manifold. Firstly, it sets out to investigate the relatively un-explored object control, transitive out of -ing complementation pattern of verbs in contemporary spoken American English, as evidenced in the COCA corpus. To this end, the quantitative analysis aimed at both establishing the frequency of the pattern and extracting any innovative matrix verbs selecting the pattern. The major criteria for assessing innovation were both Rudanko’s (2011) study and the standard work of reference, i.e. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The subsequent goal of the study constituted an attempt at taxonomising the innovative matrix verbs both in respect of their semantics and predicate–argument structure in order to discern any possible correlations between the semantics and/or syntax of the verbs and their potential for selecting the transitive out of -ing pattern. The final objective of the study was to verify the applicability of the theoretical framework adopted, i.e. Goldbergian construction grammar (Goldberg 1995), whereby grammatical constructions do convey meaning, irrespective of the words used in them, with the transitive out of -ing pattern instantiating a type of a caused motion construction. The rationale behind the choice of the pattern was to redress the balance in the treatment of the transitive out of -ing complementation pattern, “[a] pattern which has often been neglected in work on complementation” (Rudanko 2011: 87).