Light verb constructions in the history of English
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Patricia Ronan
Abstract
This study investigates light verb constructions in sample corpora from Old- Middle- and Early Modern English. The use of one coherent definition of light verb constructions throughout these periods allows direct comparison of the overall structures and of the light verbs used. The comparison shows that frequencies are highest in the Middle English texts and decrease in the Early Modern data. While the Old English counts are significantly lower than Middle English ones, their frequencies are far from negligible. It is argued that where previous assessments consider Old English light verb constructions to be rare or non-existent, this is partly due to having used the perspective of the most frequent Modern English light verbs rather than working from the perspective of which light verbs were frequent at the period in question.
Abstract
This study investigates light verb constructions in sample corpora from Old- Middle- and Early Modern English. The use of one coherent definition of light verb constructions throughout these periods allows direct comparison of the overall structures and of the light verbs used. The comparison shows that frequencies are highest in the Middle English texts and decrease in the Early Modern data. While the Old English counts are significantly lower than Middle English ones, their frequencies are far from negligible. It is argued that where previous assessments consider Old English light verb constructions to be rare or non-existent, this is partly due to having used the perspective of the most frequent Modern English light verbs rather than working from the perspective of which light verbs were frequent at the period in question.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
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Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
- Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
- What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
- The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
- The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
- can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
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Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
- Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
- Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
- The case of focus 173
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Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
- Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
- A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
- Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
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Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
- The diffusion of English absolutes 265
- It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
- The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
-
Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
- Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
- What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
- The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
- The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
- can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
-
Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
- Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
- Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
- The case of focus 173
-
Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
- Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
- A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
- Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
-
Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
- The diffusion of English absolutes 265
- It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
- The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
