Alternations (at) that time: NP versus PP time adjuncts in the history of English

Abstract

The present paper investigates variation between nominal and prepositional adjuncts of time as in, for example, [on] that day, they left. The main goals are (i) to assess potential changes in the distribution of these variants in the history of English, specifically from Middle English to Late Modern English (1150–1914), and (ii) to test which factors most strongly impact the choice between the two variants, with a focus on the impact of different complexity measures. To address these questions, the paper makes use of data from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpora of Historical English (PPCME2; PPCEME; PPCMBE), explored by means of logistic regression modelling. The results suggest that there is no dramatic, sweeping change in this abstract alternation over time, but that this variation may mainly plays out on lower, noun-specific levels.