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"This book explores the semantic-syntactic development of composite predicates (CPs) in English from the 16th to 20th centuries. Large-scale corpus data reveal that the morphologically and semantically related simple verb (e.g. notice in the case of take notice of) works as a powerful predictor of the CP's semantic evolution"--
List of contents
Abbreviations and symbols; 1. Introduction; 2. The evolution of CPs: theories, concepts and their relevance; 3. The CPs under investigation, the simple verbs and the hypotheses; 4. Methodology; 5. The evolution of the simple verbs; 6. The semantic evolution of type-I-CPs; 7. The semantic evolution of type-II-CPs; 8. Syntactic changes and a comparison of semantic and syntactic changes; 9. Theoretical discussion; 10. Conclusion and outlook.
About the author
Eva Berlage is Junior Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her notable publications include Noun Phrase Complexity in English (2014).
Summary
This book explores the semantic-syntactic development of composite predicates (CPs) in English from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. Large-scale corpus data reveal that the morphologically and semantically related simple verb (e.g. notice in the case of take notice of) works as a powerful predictor of the CP's semantic evolution.
Foreword
Based on large-scale corpus analyses, this book explores why some composite predicates in English specialize over time while others don't.
