Spreading Patterns

<p>Spreading Patterns examines how new constructions emerge and spread through the grammar of a language in a process called "diffusion." This is done by tracking the development of three types of complements from the Middle English period to the present day. These are subject-controlled gerund complements forELto-infinitives and subject-controlled participial complements. In the first half of the book De Smet focuses on how and why patterns diffuse. In the second half which is largely corpus-based De Smet tests his theoretical model of diffusion on the three complement types. His work demonstrates how diffusion interacts with the grammatical system of complementation how diffusion proceeds step-by-step and why diffusion is directional.</p>