Composite Predicates in Middle English
Teresa Moralejo Gárate
University of Santiago de Compostela
The present study addresses the need for an account of the linguistic and extralinguistic peculiarities of composite predicates (such as He told me to HAVE a LOOK at the report), formed with don, haven, maken, taken and yeven in the Middle English period, on the basis of the evidence provided by the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, Diachronic and Dialectal.
This book addresses the need for an account of the linguistic and extralinguistic peculiarities of composite predicates (such as He told me to HAVE a LOOK at the report), formed with don, haven, maken, taken and yeven in the Middle English period, on the basis of the evidence provided by the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, Diachronic and Dialectal.
The volume opens with an introduction covering goals and method. The firt chapter contains a review of previous studies on the topic, a definition of composite predicates and the criteria used to limit them are established. Several issues relevant to the study of CPs, which are dealt with in greater depth later in the study , are introduced.
Throughout the subsequent chapters, composite predicates are considered with regard to different linguistic and extralinguistic parameters, including their chronology and origin, their syntact features and patterning, their distribution across different textual types and their association any particular register. A selection of high frequency CPs and their equivalent simple verbs is contrasted to reveal any extralinguistic or linguistic factors that may motivate the choice of one of the two structures.The book closes with a recapitulation of the main conclusions reached.
ISBN 9783895868535. LINCOM Studies in English Linguistics 02. 230pp. 52 tables. 2003.
