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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Spreading Patterns: Diffusional Change in the English System of Complementation

Spreading Patterns: Diffusional Change in the English System of Complementation

Smet, Hendrik de
de Smet, Hendrik

Hardcover

Series: Oxford Studies in the History of English

Grammar & StyleLinguistics

ISBN10: 0199812756
ISBN13: 9780199812752
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Dec 14 2012
Pages: 304
Weight: 1.19
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.30
Language: English

Spreading Patterns examines how new constructions emerge and spread through the grammar of a language, in a process called diffusion. This is done by tracking the development of three types of complements from the Middle English period to the present day. These are subject-controlled gerund complements, forELto-infinitives, and subject-controlled participial complements. In the first half of the book, De Smet focuses on how and why patterns diffuse. In the second half, which is largely corpus-based, De Smet tests his theoretical model of diffusion on the three complement types. His work demonstrates how diffusion interacts with the grammatical system of complementation, how diffusion proceeds, step-by-step, and why diffusion is directional.

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