230557 How to Write a Grammar: Complementation (S) (WiSe 2007/2008)

The status of complement clause constructions (CCCs) in English has been widely and somewhat controversially discussed. Often there is a discrepancy between what is theoretically proposed and what is empirically established in, for example, corpus studies. Assuming that a grammar of English should be composed in such a way as to reflect the both approaches to this question, this class will set out to review some of the more useful theoretical approaches to CCCs and to test them against material collected in corpora of the students¿ own design. Consequently, it is expected that the participants will select hypotheses and test them against the empirical material assembled in their corpora. This work may be conducted individually or in small groups and will form the basis of the class assessment.