Abstract
The aim of the paper is to look into how the use and distribution of complex verbal phrases in English comply with the postulates of the theories of constructional iconicity, frequency asymmetries and naturalness, especially in the initial stages of their proliferation. The three theoretical frameworks are first outlined and compared, and predictions ensuing from them are formulated as to the expected behaviour of complex versus simple linguistic constructions. Two types of complex verbal constructions are examined from the point of view of these predictions: the progressive verbal phrase be + present participle and the composite predicate consisting of a semantically bleached verb + deverbal noun.
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