Finite and non‐finite complement clauses in postcolonial Englishes

Abstract

This paper explores the variability between finite and non‐finite complement clauses (CCs) after remember meaning ‘recall,’ looking at three postcolonial Englishes (PCEs), Indian, English and Sri Lankan Englishes, and British English as represented in the Corpus of Global Web‐based English (GloWbE). Taking a holistic approach, it examines the distribution and the potential language‐external and internal factors which may cause divergence between L1 and L2 varieties. Language‐external factors, such as innovation, language contact and second‐language (SLA) acquisition processes (Schneider, 2007: 88), appear to prompt the greater proportion of finite complement clauses found in the postcolonial Englishes, as expected based on the alleged tendency towards simplification of these varieties (Williams, 1987). However, the binary logistic regression analyses of language‐internal variables, largely related to the complexity principle (Rohdenburg, 1996, 2006), reveal that common language‐internal factors, apart from variety of English, also condition the choice of complement clause in the four varieties.

“I Regret Lying" vs. “I Regret that I Lied": Variation in the Clausal Complementation Profile of REGRET in American and British English

“…As Schneider points out, "in the process of structural nativization, verbs begin to allow and later prefer new structures to complement them and build a complete sentence " (2007: 86). This includes outer-circle languages, already addressed in García-Castro (2018, 2019, 2020 and Romasanta (2017Romasanta ( , 2019Romasanta ( , 2021aRomasanta ( , 2021b, expanding-circle varieties, and learner varieties, where cognitive factors derived from language contact in multilingual settings and second language acquisition are likely to pay a role in clausal complement choice.…”

Structural Nativization in Postcolonial Englishes

“…Bernaisch, Gries & Mukherjee 2014;Gries & Bernaisch 2016;Röthlisberger, Grafmiller & Szmrecsanyi 2017;Szmrecsanyi et al 2016), clausal verbal complementation has barely been investigated at all (although cf. Bernaisch 2015;Deshors 2015;Deshors & Gries 2016;García-Castro 2019, 2020Romasanta 2017;Steger & Schneider 2012). Furthermore, these studies have usually concentrated on existing patterns (an exception being new ditransitive verbs; 1 cf.…”