Revisiting Gradience in Diachronic Construction Grammar: PPs and the Complement-Adjunct Distinction in the History of English

Abstract

Abstract The present paper discusses the concept of gradience and fuzziness from the perspective of Diachronic Construction Grammar. It does so by investigating verb-attached PPs in the history of English, with a focus on their semantic and syntactic functions and features over time. Specifically, the paper uses the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpora of Historical English, including texts from Middle English (PPCME2), Early Modern English (PPCEME), and Late Modern English (PPCMBE) to revisit the distinction between adjuncts and complements. In particular, I address the question whether this traditionally binary classification finds support in diachronic data, or whether PPs rather represent a gradience between prototypical adjunct- and complementhood. Furthermore, the paper assesses whether any change in the distribution and features of PPs (specifically an increase in complementhood) can be observed over time. Ultimately, the findings suggest a multi-level network of PPs that is diachronically very stable.