Nonfinite supplements in the recent history of English

Resumen

This dissertation reports the results of a comprehensive corpus-based analysis of subjectless ing- and ed-supplements 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 have syntactic, semantic or grammatical consequences for either the structure or the interpretation of the 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, a semantic relation exists between the supplement and the main clause which resembles that of a regular adverbial. 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 the results of a pilot study on absolute constructions, that it is the non-finite periphery in English that becomes more homogeneous. The dissertation has been organised into six chapters. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction of the object of study, i.e. the category of supplements. Chapter 2 provides the 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 and 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. Chapter 6 rounds off the dissertation with an overview of the main findings and the concluding remarks.