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Emergent Alternation in Complement Selection

The Spread of the Transitive into -ing Construction in British and American English Juhani Rudanko University of Tampere, Finland

University of Tampere, Finland

This article examines the transitive into-ing pattern in current English with seven verbs of manner-neutral causation involving object control. It is argued that the usage is innovative. While the to infinitive pattern is still much more common, the article substantiates the existence of the transitive into-ing pattern with these verbs. Four of the seven verbs afford a noteworthy number of tokens in the material, and it is argued that with manner-neutral matrix verbs, the pattern is more frequent in British English than in American English at this time. The emergence of the pattern with such verbs is viewed as yet another manifestation of the more general spread of -ing complements at the expense of to infinitive complements. It is also argued that the distinctive semantic flavor of the transitive intoing pattern is also a factor aiding in its emergence.

Key Words: object control • the transitive into-ing pattern • the resultative construction • British and American English • the Great Complement Shift

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