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Comparative complementizers in TEA according to the level of metaphoricality (i.e., non-literality) of the subordinate clauses (n = 480).
Source publication
There are five verbs in present-day English that indicate the apparentness of a subsequent finite subordinate clause: seem, appear, look, sound, and feel. These verbs can be linked to the lower clause by one of five comparative complementizers: as if, as though, like, that, and null. Although like is the newest of these variants (López-Couso and Mé...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Figure 7 shows, in accordance with the first hypothesis, that as if and as though become increasingly likely with a higher level of metaphoricality in the subordinate clause, while that and Ø are the opposite: However, in contrast to the second prediction, the semantic preferences of the four older complementizers do not neutralize towards the end of the interval covered by the ECW. Their se- mantic preferences are all stable in real time; as Figure 8 shows, the surviving variants that and Ø even show similar patterning in the TEA data from the early 21 st century, disregarding the fact that the system has been flooded with like: This result thus demonstrates that like could not have been ushered in by leveling of this con- straint. If anything, like could have been able to catch on amid this competition because -unique- ly -it is not sensitive to the literality of the subordinate clause. ...
Context 2
... significant effect of metaphoricality exists because the only other variants that remain in the system at non-negligible levels -that and Ø -both have a preference for concrete clauses. That is, as Figure 8 shows, like has absorbed the task of introducing metaphorical clauses, but both of the variants that combine more readily with concrete clauses are holding out to some extent. ...
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Citations
... (1) He talks as if he has a potato in his mouth (adapted from Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik 1985:1110 (2) It seemed as if / that he was trying to hide his true identity (adapted from Huddleston & Pullum 2002:962) The use of these complementizers, which are referred to as "minor" because of their low frequency, has been mentioned in the literature on complementation at various times, though mostly in passing (e.g., Lakoff 1968:69, note 7;Huddleston 1971:177-178;Warner 1982:180-185, 221-224;Mitchell 1985:15-17;Noonan 1985:104;Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik 1985:1175Fanego 1990: 19-20;Bender & Flickinger 1999;Huddleston & Pullum 2002:962, 1151-1152. More recently, however, López-Couso and Méndez-Naya (2015) have addressed minor complementizers at length, to examine, on the one hand, the category of minor complementizers itself and, on the other, the history and use of individual clause connectives such as as if, as though, but, if, lest, like, and though (e.g., 1998, 2001, 2012; see also López-Couso 2007, Brook 2014. ...
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.
... Defined only if τ (s t opic c ) < UT c . 31 While Bender and Flickinger (1999) and Brook (2014) treat as if -complements of perceptual source verbs as CPs headed by the complementizer as if, Asudeh (2002) argues that as if -phrases are PPs generated from an ordinary if -CP and preposition as. Although we wish to remain officially neutral about whether as if -phrases are CPs, PPs, or perhaps both CPs and PPs at once, let us note for the record that we do not find Asudeh's arguments for the PP approach especially persuasive, as these are largely based on uniformities between as if and ordinary as and if -for instance, he observes that as if -phrases take the same premodifiers as prepositions and allow for subjunctive mood. ...
This is the first part of a larger project that aims to develop a cross-categorical semantic account of a broad range of as if constructions in English. In this paper, we focus on descriptive uses of as if with regular truth-conditional content. The core proposal is that as if-phrases contribute hypothetical (if-like) and comparative (as-like) properties of situations, which are instantiated by an event, state, or larger situation when it resembles in some relevant respect its counterparts in selected stereotypical worlds described by the clause embedded under as if. We motivate and develop this situation-semantic analysis in detail for examples like Pedro danced as if he was possessed by demons where the modifying as if-adjunct is used to inferentially convey the manner of a reported activity. We extend this analysis to as if-complements of perception verbs in reports like The soup tastes as if it contains fish sauce, offering an alternative to conceptually problematic approaches that assimilate such perceptual resemblance reports to propositional attitude ascriptions. We also examine the predicative function of as if in examples like The state of the house is as if a tornado passed through it where the as if-phrase denotes a hypothetical comparative property of the nominal subject.
... Minor declarative complementizers are discussed in passing inLakoff (1968: 69, note 7);Huddleston (1971: 177−178);Warner (1982: 180−185, 221−224);Mitchell (1985Mitchell ( : § §1960−1961;Noonan (1985: 104);Quirk et al. (1985: 1175, note a);McCawley (1988: 143);Dirven (1989: 134);Fanego (1990: 19−20);Huddleston and Pullum et al. (2002: 962, 1151−1152;Dancygier and Sweetser (2005: 229−230) andTaylor and Pang (2008: 130). The comparative complementizers as if and as though are discussed in greater detail inBender and Flickinger (1999),Rooryck (2000) andBrook (2014Brook ( , 2018.6 We follow here the classification of semantic predicates proposed byNoonan (1985). ...
This article discusses some of the potential problems derived from the syntactic annotation of historical corpora, especially in connection with low-frequency phenomena. By way of illustration, we examine the parsing scheme used in the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English (PPCHE) for clauses introduced by so-called ‘minor declarative complementizers’, originally adverbial links which come to be occasionally used in complementizer function. We show that the functional similarities between canonical declarative complement clauses introduced by the major declarative links that and zero and those headed by minor declarative complementizers are not captured by the PPCHE parsing, where the latter constructions are not tagged as complement clauses, but rather as adverbial clauses. The examples discussed reveal that, despite the obvious advantages of parsed corpora, annotation may sometimes mask interesting linguistic facts.
... However, by the beginning of the 21st century, like had become the overwhelmingly predominant variant in spoken Canadian English (López-Couso and Méndez-Naya 2012a:185) as represented by the Toronto English Archive (TEA; Tagliamonte 2003Tagliamonte -2006Tagliamonte , 2006). An apparent-time view of the TEA (Brook 2014) suggests that as if and as though have long since been superseded by like, and shows that in more recent decades, that and Ø have been declining as well. I have argued (Brook 2014) that like is more semantically versatile than its covariants: it does not show a preference either for hypothetical/metaphorical clauses (as if, as though) or for the opposite (that, Ø) in present-day Canadian English (Brook 2014). ...
... An apparent-time view of the TEA (Brook 2014) suggests that as if and as though have long since been superseded by like, and shows that in more recent decades, that and Ø have been declining as well. I have argued (Brook 2014) that like is more semantically versatile than its covariants: it does not show a preference either for hypothetical/metaphorical clauses (as if, as though) or for the opposite (that, Ø) in present-day Canadian English (Brook 2014). As with other uses of the word like in present-day English, the complementizer has a certain amount of semantic flexibility built into it. ...
... An apparent-time view of the TEA (Brook 2014) suggests that as if and as though have long since been superseded by like, and shows that in more recent decades, that and Ø have been declining as well. I have argued (Brook 2014) that like is more semantically versatile than its covariants: it does not show a preference either for hypothetical/metaphorical clauses (as if, as though) or for the opposite (that, Ø) in present-day Canadian English (Brook 2014). As with other uses of the word like in present-day English, the complementizer has a certain amount of semantic flexibility built into it. ...
Among the complementizers that can link seem, appear, look, sound, and feel to finite subordinate clauses – as if, as though, like, that, and a null form – there is a lexical replacement nearing completion in the Toronto English Archive (Tagliamonte 2003-2006, 2006). Over the course of the 20th century in apparent time, like comes to dominate over its covariants in this context in the TEA (López-Couso and Méndez-Naya 2012a, Brook 2014). There are, however, signs that this is not a self-contained change, among them a noticeable imbalance in the number of tokens according to speaker age (Brook 2014:5). Looking beyond the conventional variable context in much the same way as Aaron (2010), I uncover evidence that ties this overarching age effect to a broader-level change-in-progress on the level of entire syntactic structures. After the verb seem in Ontario English, finite subordination is increasing at the expense of infinitival subordination. More specifically, even taking into account the influx of like within the complementizer system, the structures that permit copy-raising (Rogers 1974, Heycock 1994, Matushansky 2002, Asudeh and Toivonen 2007, Asudeh 2012, etc.) are increasing together opposite infinitival clausal complements. In other words, younger speakers in Ontario are not simply relying on It/she seems like she's feeling better instead of It/she seems as if she's feeling better. They are also saying It/she seems like she's feeling better instead of She seems to be feeling better. Even with an incoming form defined much more in terms of its syntactic properties than its surface appearance, the change acts exactly as expected in terms of social factors, with a straightforward age effect and female lead (Labov 2001:275, 292-293). I consider some of the implications of this: whether causation between the two levels of change can be established, what it means for there to be recognizable orderly heterogeneity (Weinreich et al. 1968) on an abstract syntactic level, and how this pair of changes might affect Canadian English evidential expressions that rely on the verb seem (cf. Rett et al. 2013, Rett and Hyams 2014).
This article traces the history of the minor complementisers as if , as though , and like (when they follow evidential verbs such as seem and look ) in Canadian English. By the 21st century, both as if and as though were rare in Canada, while like appeared to have become popular ( López-Couso and Méndez-Naya 2012b ). The Victoria English Archive ( D’Arcy 2011–2014 , 2015 ; Roeder, Onosson, and D’Arcy 2018 ) is used to map out the change in a combination of synchronic and diachronic spoken data. Results show that as if and as though are unusual even in the earliest speakers, which puts spoken Canadian English at odds with contemporaneous writing ( Brook 2014 ). However, this unexpected register difference may explain why the complementiser like caught on in North American dialects of English sooner and more readily than in the United Kingdom – where a robust as if and as though in speech would have remained barriers.
The collocation I feel like has attracted American media attention for reportedly being newly ubiquitous (Baker 2013, Smith 2015, Worthen 2016). While I have proposed that it is becoming an epistemic marker in North American dialects of English (Brook 2011: 65), I have made this prediction of (it) feels like as well. The present study artificially restricts the conventional envelope of variation to evaluate what distinguishes these two phrases in vernacular Canadian English. I feel like is the more frequent by far, but (it) feels like shows a specialization for metaphorical subordinate clauses rather than concrete ones. I interpret this as a case of persistence (Torres Cacoullos and Walker 2009). Before the arrival of the like complementizer, the only predecessors to ’(it) feels like were (it) feels as if and (it) feels as though , and both as if and as though have a preference for metaphoricality (Brook 2014). I feel like was also preceded by options with ’ as if and as though , but counterbalanced with that and Ø, which prefer concrete subordinate clauses (Brook 2014). The results attest to the value to be found in (cautiously) conducting a microscopic study of a corner of the envelope of variation.
This paper uncovers evidence for two linked levels of morphosyntactic change occurring in Canadian English. The more ordinary is a lexical replacement: with finite subordination after seem, the complementizer like has been overtaking all the alternatives ( as if, as though, that, and Ø ). On top of this, there is a broader syntactic change whereby the entire finite structure (now represented primarily by like ) is beginning to catch on at the expense of infinitival subordination after seem . Drawing on complementary evidence from British English and several partial precedents in the historical linguistics literature, I take this correlation to mean that like has reached sufficient rates among the finite strategy to have instigated the second level of change, to the point that it has ramifications for epistemic and evidential marking with the verb seem . I propose that the best model of these trajectories is a set of increasingly large envelopes of variation, one inside the next, and argue that the envelope might itself be an entity susceptible to change over time.
The period from ages 18 to 25 is sometimes called ‘emerging adulthood’ (Arnett 2000, 2004) since it has come to be characterized by major life transitions. Linguistically, this means that lifespan change in the individual (Sankoff 2004, 2018) might be particularly likely during these years (Labov 2001: 447; Bigham 2012: 533; Kohn 2014: 20). Addressing a need for more real‐time sociolinguistic research on early adulthood, we employ data from a panel study of a single speaker, ‘Clara’ (b. 1986), interviewed every 12 to 18 months between the ages of 16 and 30 (Tagliamonte 2005, 2012: 274–276). We examine four linguistic variables that differ according to level of the grammar and social salience in Clara's community (Toronto, Canada). For each variable, Clara's rates of the variants shift to match those of subsequent age cohorts in the community around her as she gets older and joins the workforce. These findings attest to emerging adulthood as a sociolinguistically formative period. More generally, they emphasize the inseparability of individuals and their linguistic surroundings.
Nominal complementizers (e.g. Eng. that, Fr. que) often have the same morphophonological form as other grammatical items, such as demonstrative, relative, and wh-pronouns. In this paper we treat such overlaps as instantiations of syncretism, and we discuss the different patterns of syncretism with the nominal complementizer in various languages. We treat the syncretism facts within a nanosyntactic framework (Starke , Caha ), meaning that complementizers are not simplex heads of CP (or ForceP/FinP in Rizzi's sense) but actually composed of multiple features, each feature corresponding to a head in a single functional sequence which is responsible for building demonstratives, complementizers, relativizers, and wh-pronouns (for alternative decompositions of complementizers in Romance, Balkan, and Germanic, see also Baunaz , to appear Sanfelice & Poletto ; and Leu , respectively). Interestingly, moreover, many of the languages under discussion show a bound morpheme appearing as an integral part of the internal morphological makeup of quantifiers. This bound morpheme may also be syncretic with the complementizer (Romance -que/-che, Serbo-Croatian -što, Modern Greek -ti, Finnish -kin, and Hungarian ho-) or not (Germanic -thing/-ting, for which see also Leu ). We call this the 'nominal core' (n), and its behavior with regard to syncretism is crucial for determining the hierarchical ordering of the functional sequence.
