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Article: Composite Predicates and idiomatisation in Middle English: a Corpus-based approach (1).(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Adam Mickiewicz University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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0. Introduction
The idiomatic nature of Composite Predicates (2) in Present Day English has often been acknowledged (see, for instance, Algeo 1995: 205). It has been argued that in earlier stages of the language Composite Predicates were more variable than they are today (Brinton - Akimoto 1999: 16-17), as can be observed in the studies on this topic in Middle English (Matsumoto 1999: 92; Tanabe 1999: 123).
The present paper aims to study the degree of fixation of Composite Predicate structures with the verb to make used in Middle English, on the basis of the evidence provided by the Middle English section of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts: ...