Bowie, J;
Wallis, S;
(2016)
The to-infinitival perfect: A study of decline.
In: Werner, V and Seoane, E and Suárez-Gómez, C, (eds.)
Re-assessing the Present Perfect.
(pp. 43-94).
De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin, Germany.
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Abstract
The English to-infinitival perfect (as in She claims to have seen him) has not received the same attention as the present perfect. In this paper we examine its changing use in written American English over the last 200 years, using data from the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). This reveals a reduction of about 80 % over this period, against a baseline of other past-referring forms (present perfect and past tense verbs). Secondly, we examine contexts of decline, focusing on the most frequent verb collocates of the to-infinitival perfect in COHA (such as claim in the example above) on the premise that these collocates identify the semantic contexts in which the to-infinitival perfect may be used. Collocates are divided into subgroups based on semantic and grammatical criteria, including possible alternation patterns to the to-infinitival perfect. This procedure exposes a rich variation in the behaviour of both subgroups and individual verbs.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | The to-infinitival perfect: A study of decline |
| ISBN-13: | 978-3-11-044353-0 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1515/9783110443530 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110443530 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of English Lang and Literature |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1522082 |
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