Clines of subordination – constructions with the German ‘complement-taking predicate’ glauben

The German “complement-taking predicate” (Thompson/Mulac 1984, 1991) glauben occurs in a number of different syntactic constructions. For example, it can be realized as part of a matrix clause followed by a subordinate clause with or without a complementizer. As the term “complement-taking predicate” suggests, these matrix constructions should be expected to be the standard ones with glauben. An empirical study of the uses of glauben in spoken German reveals, though, that the majority of all cases involving glauben are hybrid constructions resembling modal particles or adverbs. With those instances of glauben, a new “small construction” (Thompson 2002a) is about to be grammaticalized into a kind of epistemic qualifier. The process of this reanalysis is not yet finished, resulting in constructions that cannot be allocated to any conventional category such as matrix clause or modal particle.