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The chapter is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a short survey of clausal verb complementation, which serves as a backdrop to our study of complement clause variation. Section 3 details the goals of this chapter, while Section 4 presents data and methodology. Section 5 is devoted to the multivariate and probabilistic analysis of finite vs. non-finite complement choice. In Section 6, we contrast the results of our analysis with earlier claims in the literature on (changing) complementclause preferences. Section summarizes and details the contribution our study makes to the body of previous research. A short survey of clausal verb complementationClausal verb complementation (i.e., structures of the type [complement-taking predicate + to-infinitive clause/gerundial -ing-clause/that-clause/for...to-infinitive clause]) has been an important research topic within generative as well as cognitive-functional linguistic frameworks. Indeed, complementation phenomena have been a concern of generative linguists (Rosenbaum 1967, Bresnan 1970) since Chomsky's seminal Aspects of a theory of syntax (1965), and important work in this domain has continued ever since (

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Applying the framework of Radical Construction Grammar to diachronic phenomena, the present paper examines Copular Constructions in Old and Middle English, with special attention to the loss of the Copula weorðan 'become'. First we reconstruct the extension of the OE Verbs is, beon, weorðan and becuman to various types of Copular Constructions. We further argue that schematic Copular Constructions emerge in overlapping usage areas resulting from these developments, in which abstraction is made of the Copulas' particular aspectual semantics. These schematic Copular Constructions in turn undergo some changes themselves. In Middle English a Passive Construction developed out of an original Copula Construction involving Adjectival Participles. However, the constructional profile of weorðan comprised an association between Participial and Adjectival Subject Complements much stronger than in other copulas, and this conflicted with this development, with the archaisization of weorðan as a result. This process of archaisization was further strengthened by the takeover of Weak Verbs in -ian (type ealdian 'become old') by new copulas like becuman. In general, we show how diachronic construction grammar might account for the loss of a function word otherwise difficult to account for.

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In his typologically oriented study of verbal complementation, Noonan describes complementation as "basically a matter of matching a particular complement type to a particular complement-taking predicate" (1985: 90). 1 The English system of verbal complementation forms no exception to this general statement. As is well known, English has a set of different complement types, such as the that-clause, the gerund clause or the infinitive clause, which are distributed over the inventory of complement-taking verbs in such a way that some verbs take only one complement type, while others allow two or even three, as the following set of examples illustrates.(1) Mary enjoyed listening / *to listen to her grandmother"s stories.(2) Mary liked listening / to listen to her grandmother"s stories.(3) Mary longed *listening / to listen to her grandmother"s stories.The question is, of course, what principles motivate the matching between a verb and a complement type, and thus give rise to the kind of distribution illustrated in (1)-(3).

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