A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus
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Juhani Rudanko
Abstract
This article argues that an approach based on semantic roles offers a new approach to the variation between to infinitival and of -ing complements of the adjective afraid. While the semantic role of the higher subject does not appear to vary, control theory makes it possible to investigate the semantic role of the lower subject. No absolute rules can be given, but regularities that are of statistical significance can be observed. The study draws on the first three decades of the TIME Corpus for authentic data. The results shed light on the semantic interpretation of to infinitival and -ing complements in subject control constructions and open a new perspective on the relevance of semantic roles to argument selection.
Abstract
This article argues that an approach based on semantic roles offers a new approach to the variation between to infinitival and of -ing complements of the adjective afraid. While the semantic role of the higher subject does not appear to vary, control theory makes it possible to investigate the semantic role of the lower subject. No absolute rules can be given, but regularities that are of statistical significance can be observed. The study draws on the first three decades of the TIME Corpus for authentic data. The results shed light on the semantic interpretation of to infinitival and -ing complements in subject control constructions and open a new perspective on the relevance of semantic roles to argument selection.
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
