Clausal verb complementation in varieties of English

Abstract

This article looks at the finite/non-finite complementation alternation with expect and suggest (in its suasive meaning) from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. It investigates whether the diachronic shift from finite to non-finite complementation in British English is reflected by distributional differences in finite vs. non-finite complementation patterns in World Englishes positioned at different stages in Schneider’s Dynamic Model (2007). It also examines the factors that determine the complementation alternation in these varieties. Data have been extracted from the CLMET, BNC and GloWbE corpora. Methodologically, frequency analyses, random forest analyses, logistic regression analyses and conditional inference trees are employed. The analyses show that expect largely corroborates the hypotheses, whereas suggest shows unexpected tendencies.