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Changing Structures: Studies in constructions and complementation
Edited by Mark Kaunisto, Mikko Höglund and Paul Rickman
[Studies in Language Companion Series 195] 2018
► pp. 89–107

Complementation of ashamed – diachrony and determinants of variation

| Stockholm University
The present chapter will contribute to the area of English complementation studies by investigating the adjective ashamed. The study focuses on the diachronic development of the use of ashamed during the past two centuries in different environments, and the variation between two rivalling non-finite complements, to infinitive and of -ing. The data was collected from COHA and COCA. The results show that since the 1870s ashamed has been used less and less, and that it occurs nowadays regularly without a complement whereas in the 19th century the to infinitive complement was common. The of -ing complement is not used much, but some contexts such as negation or copula in the complement clause were observed to attract this complement type.
Keywords: complementation, adjective, ashamed , corpus, diachrony
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Materials and method
  • 4.Findings and discussion
    • 4.1Development of ashamed and its complements in COHA
    • 4.2Choice between to infinitive and of -ing complement
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.195.06hog
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