The Emergence and Loss of the English Minor Complementizers till and until

Abstract

This article examines the development of the subordinators till and until as minor complementizers in the Late Middle English and Early Modern English periods. An analysis of data obtained from a number of sources shows that till/ until underwent a process of secondary grammaticalization, emerging as complementizers introducing clauses governed by the desiderative predicate long. The findings further suggest that the use of till/ until-clauses with long was the result of a process of lexical diffusion from the semantically related pattern think ( it) long till/until-clause (in the sense of ‘to seem or appear long, to be wearisome (to a person) (until something happens)’). In Late Modern English, till/until-clauses following long were lost and replaced by competing patterns with to-infinitives and for. . .to-infinitives, the latter emerging at the time as a new complement type. The article discusses the motivations and broader implications of the obsolescence of till/until-complements, which failed to spread to other members of the class of verbs of “desire,” such as desire, thirst, or yearn, and thus remained at the margins of the English system of complementation.