The rivalry between far from being + predicative item and its counterpart omitting the copula in Modern English
Distinguishing between several subtypes of the frame far from + optional and recessive being + predicative phrase, this paper charts the evolution of the rivalling variants in British and American English over the last few centuries. The paper reports on two major findings. First, in line with the Complexity Principle, there is a tendency for more complex predicatives to help preserve the more explicit being variant better than simpler ones. In particular, morphologically complex adjectives and syntactically complex noun phrases in the predicative slot are shown to retain the being variant longer than less complex ones. Second, as regards the establishment of the less explicit zero variant, the relation between British and American English corresponds to the so-called lag and overtake scenario. While initially trailing behind British English, American English has - in more recent times - adopted the zero variant much faster than British English.
Article outline
- 1.Setting the scene
- 2.Historical developments
- 2.1Clausal type A involving adjectives in the narrative database and the OED
- 2.2Other environments
- 3.Complexity constraints
- 3.1Cognitive accessibility
- 3.2The relevance of morphologically-based categories
- 3.3Syntactic constraints in the language of present-day British newspapers
- 4.Comparing British and American English
- 4.1Historical contrasts: The lag and overtake scenario
- 4.2Some remaining contrasts: The present-day situation as reflected in large collections of British and American newspapers
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
- Author query
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British National Corpus (
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ECF Eighteenth-Century Fiction
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EEPF
Early English Prose Fiction (
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EPD English Prose Drama
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ETC Early Twentieth Century Corpus – a selection of British and American writings by authors born between 1870 and
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ETC/A American writings in the ETC
ETC/B British writings in the ETC
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L96-99
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LNC/A American writings in the LNC
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MNC/A American writings in the MNC
MNC/B British writings in the MNC
N01
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NCF
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W90-92
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Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Vosberg, Uwe
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.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.