Nonfinite supplements in the recent history of English

Nonfinite supplements in the recent history of English

This dissertation reports the results of a comprehensive corpus-based analysis of subjectless ing- and ed-supplements, such as (1)-(4), in LModE and PDE. Supplements are constructions in the clausal periphery that can be characterised as follows. First, they do not fulfil a core syntactic function within the matrix clause. Second, their presence (or absence) does not typically affect the structure or the interpretation of the main clause. Third, supplements are usually detached from the main clause by an intonational break or a pause which is marked by punctuation in writing. Fourth, they may occupy different positions in clause structure: before or after the main clause, or interrupting the main clause at different points. Despite their peripheral status, supplements are prototypically linked to the main clause. First, by definition, they do not have explicit subjects but the referents of their (understood) subject are prototypically those of the main-clause subjects. Second, supplements may be explicitly linked to the main clause by means of augmentors. Third, an adverbial relation usually exists between the supplement and the main clause. The notion of supplement as understood in this dissertation is modelled mainly on Declerck’s (1991) definition.

(1) but I was now too old for the navy, being sixteen years of age. (PPCMBE, FAYRER-1900,7.150)

(2) Written in English over the period from 1929 to 1938, Beckett's early work seems restless, nomadic. (ICE-GB:W2A-004 #009:1)

(3) They are good feed for coach or omnibus Horses, if given in small quantities and with caution, and due attention to the constitution of the Horse. (PPCMBE, SKEAVINGTON-184X,17.C1.52)

(4) In returning at Night from Snow's-fields, at the Corner of Joyner-Street, the Coach, wherein five of us were, was overturn'd (…) (PPCMBE, WESLEY-174X,17.128)

            The goal of this corpus-based dissertation is to characterise the prototypical category of supplement in the recent history of English (LModE to PDE), and in particular to describe the diachronic variation from the eighteenth century to the present in terms of a number of variables. The data reveal that the category of supplements becomes increasingly more homogeneous. In addition, it is hypothesized, on the basis of previous research on supplements and absolute constructions combined (Bouzada-Jabois and Pérez-Guerra 2016), that it is the non-finite periphery in English that becomes more homogeneous.

            This dissertation is organised into six chapters. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction of the object of study, i.e. the category of supplements. Chapter 2 provides a revision of the relevant literature and surveys the main features of the construction. This chapter also provides a terminological overview of the concept ‘supplement’ and of other overlapping labels with the purpose of establishing a clear-cut definition of the notion supplement, as it is used in this dissertation, and of distinguishing supplements from other similar and/or competing constructions. Chapter 3 revolves around methodological issues. Very briefly, it justifies the adoption of corpus linguistics as a valid methodology in this investigation, describes the corpora used for the analysis of supplements as well as the retrieval process, and finally outlines the database and its variables. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 constitute the central point of the dissertation with an in depth analysis of ing- and ed-supplements in LModE and in PDE, respectively. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a detailed summary of each of the chapters.

            Two corpora were employed in this analysis of supplements. LModE data was retrieved from the Penn Parsed Corpus of Modern British English (PPCMBE), particularly from two subperiods: P1 (1700 to 1769) and P3 (1840 to 1914). PDE data was retrieved from the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB). A random selection of the ICE-GB was utilized (25 per cent). Both corpora are syntactically parsed: the query in the PPCMBE was based on the tag IP-PPL (‘participial clauses without subjects’) and in the ICE-GB three syntactic trees were created for the retrieval of supplements. An analysis of precision and recall for each of the retrieval processes proved their reliability. The database of supplements includes textual information tracking the source of the examples and structural and semantic features of each token. The characterisation of prototypical supplements was carried out considering mainly the formal features (head elements, augmentors and position of the supplement in the matrix clause) and the semantic characteristics (supplement control and adverbial interpretation).

Overall, the results showed that the prototypical category of supplement in LModE and PDE may be characterised as follows. To begin with, the prototypical supplement, in formal terms, is headed by a simple ing-form. Although augmentation was not the preferred option in LModE, the number of augmented supplements, particularly of those with semantically more specific connectors, increased in frequency from P1 to P3 in LModE, and in PDE almost half of the examples were augmented. With respect to position in the matrix clause, final supplements were pervasive in both LModE and PDE, and the proportion of final supplements increases from LModE to PDE. The preference for final placement of the supplement did not correspond with informational weight, as short supplements were also common in final position. Semantically, in LModE and PDE the prototypical supplement was most often related and controlled by the main-clause subject. Over time, an increase of related non-subject-controlled and unrelated supplements could be observed but this did not affect the prototypical status of the related subject-controlled type. As regards adverbial meaning, more informative supplements constituted the most frequent type in LModE and in PDE, although their frequency decreased in PDE in favour of less informative meanings, especially in the absence of augmentation. In fact, augmentation was claimed to be a signal of informativeness as it was most often accompanied by more informative interpretations. Concerning their distribution across text types, supplements were more productive in texts with a depictive status (‘fiction’ in the PPCMBE and ‘novels/stories’ in ICE-GB). If fiction is not considered, supplements were productive in formal, written and narrative textual sources.