Composite Predicates in English

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.

• Uncovers the role that the simple verb plays for the semantic evolution of the composite predicates
• Explores how, in processes of semantic specialization, semantic changes precede syntactic ones
• Demonstrates that composite predicates that have simple verb counterparts (e.g. make use of – use) decrease in frequencies from the nineteenth to the twentieth century or have consistently low frequencies