This repository hosts the code and data for my analysis of the grammaticalization of the verb keep.
In present day English the verb keep occurs in two related constructions, where it serves an auxiliary-like function. It is used as a continuative marker in the keep (on) + Verb-ing construction (1) and in the older complex-transitive construction (2) (De Smet 2013: 204-206).
- She keeps (on) dancing.
- She kept the fire burning.
See also this repository for my query of the keep + V-ing pattern in the EMMA corus.
The data was collected from the EMMA corpus (Petré et al. 2019). Like Petré and Van de Velde (2018) this study relies on grammaticalization scores to create a distributional profile of the two constructions with keep. Seven variables were taken into account:
- innovativeness of the ing-form (top 15 collocates)
- bondedness
- inclusion of an explicit continuative marker
- animacy of the subject
- presence of a motion verb
- coordination with an adjective
- De Smet, Hendrik. 2013. Spreading Patterns: diffusional change in the English system of complementation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Petré, Peter & Freek Van de Velde. 2018. The real-time dynamics of the individual and the community in grammaticalization. Language 94(4). 867-901.
- Petré, Peter, Lynn Anthonissen, Sara Budts, Enrique Manjavacas, William Standing & Odile A.O. Strik. 2019. Early-Modern Multiloquent Authors (EMMA): Designing a large-scale corpus of individuals’ languages. ICAME journal, manuscript.
Own research output:
- Nijs, Julie & Freek Van de Velde. 2023. Does the construction keep on grammaticalizing? presentation at ICEHL: Sheffield. July 2023. abstract