Lexical factors in non-finite complementation of continue

Abstract

The study examines the usage of two non-finite complements of the verb continue: the -ing form and the to-infinitive, arguing for the importance of low level generalizations in accounting for the complement choice. The semantic import of complement constructions may vary with specific lexeme classes of both the matrix verb and the complement verb, as well as be conditioned by more general features associated with the verbs’ lexical aspect. The determinants of complement choice are characterized in terms of the aspectual construal of the complement event imposed by the two alternative constructions: conceptual proximity and distance associated respectively with the -ing form and the to-infinitive. The study relies on distinctive collexeme analysis: a statistical technique which compares the lexemes distinctive for the two constructions in order to describe the semantics of the construction by examining its most characteristic collocates.