Composite predicates in English : processes of specialization /
Composite Predicates (CPs) are of particular interest to linguists in that only some of them are semantically restricted in present-day English, while others are not. This book explores the semantic-syntactic evolution of twenty-four different CPs in English from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
[2025].
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| Series: | Studies in English language.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Composite Predicates (CPs) are of particular interest to linguists in that only some of them are semantically restricted in present-day English, while others are not. This book explores the semantic-syntactic evolution of twenty-four different CPs in English from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, showing why some specialize over time while others do not. It highlights that the semantic scope and evolution of the morphologically and semantically related simple verb acts as a powerful predictor of whether or not a CP becomes semantically restricted in the course of time. In all those cases where CPs undergo specialization, semantic changes take place earlier than syntactic ones. Finally, large-scale corpus-analyses reveal that the CPs, which, in comparison to their morphologically simple verbs, can be considered analytic constructions, decrease from the nineteenth to twentieth century or show consistently low frequencies. This finding runs counter to the trend of English to become increasingly analytic. |
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| Physical Description: | xviii, 217 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-215) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107155640 1107155649 9781316609354 1316609359 |