This book offers a new and compendious account of important verbal patterns in present-day English. Serving as a central source of data, it updates and refines earlier research contributing to the syntactic and semantic description of English. Rudanko establishes an original framework, and systematically analyzes patterns of complementation using the tool of case grammar. The examination of Control, or EQUI, is a common theme and an important problem for transformationalists, and English syntacticians will value Rudanko's work on infinitive complements.

This book provides a pioneering and data-oriented investigation of the syntax and semantics of important prepositional complementation patterns dependent on the prepositions in, to, at , on, with, and of in current English. The investigation is based on a sample of matrix verbs that governs the pattern of sentential complementation. The data includes the Brown and LOB corpora, English dictionaries and grammars, and the intuitions of native speakers. Rudanko sets up taxonomies of matrix verbs and argues that they often can be based on relatively few core classes. He questions whether verbs selecting a pattern also select other patterns of sentential complementation. Noting the quantity and quality of such alternation, he observes how differences in form are linked to differences in meaning. The study of relevant matrix verbs, supplemented with discussion of alternation and other syntactic and semantic properties of the patterns, points to the semantic functions that are associated typically with each pattern of complementation.

This book is a guide to the development of English syntax between the Old and Modern periods. Beginning with an overview of the main features of early English syntax, it gives a unified account of the significant grammatical changes that occurred during this period. Four leading experts demonstrate how these changes can be explained in terms of grammatical theory and the theory of language acquisition. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data, the book covers a wide range of topics including changes in word order, infinitival constructions and grammaticalization processes.

Experts from psycholinguistics and English historical linguistics address core factors in language change.