영어 to-부정사와 전치사적 동명사의 교체에 관한 통시적 연구

전치사 on과 in의 사례

This paper examines the alternation between to-infinitives and the prepositions on/in plus gerund to investigate the hypothesis of ‘Great Complement Shift’ (GCS), i.e. infinitival complement is being replaced by prepositional gerund over time. To support GCS, previous studies focused on the development of the preposition to plus gerund but the other prepositions have been little studied. This paper selects five matrix verbs showing alternation between to-infinitives and on/upon plus gerund (decide, resolve) or in plus gerund (delight, persist, fail; in case of fail, the prepositions of and at are also examined), and compares the frequency changes from the 1820s to the 2000s in the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). It is found that no verbs except delight matches GCS. Therefore, The GCS hypothesis should be either abandoned or revised to explain only limited types of constructions.