Development of the Subject of BE going to in Grammaticalisation from the 1820s to 2010s in Comparison with BE about to

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study clarifies the relaxation of selectional restrictions imposed on the subject of BE going to in relation to its increase in frequency from the 1820s to the 2010s by analysing the Corpus of Historical American English. To this end, BE about to is also analysed. Whilst the use of BE going to in the passive and there constructions is attested in the early stage of its grammaticalisation towards becoming a semi-auxiliary by previous studies, this study suggests that its use with the pronoun what in subject position was also a sign of an initial stage of grammaticalisation. It will be also shown that subjects composed of grammatical components with simple content appeared earlier than those with content-rich ones. This study also demonstrates that the frequency order of these subjects in current English corresponds to their chronological order of when the earliest token appeared in the corpus.