A CORPUS BASED DIACHRONIC STUDY OF VERB COMPLEMENTATION PATTERN IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH

Abstract

This study is about the verb complementation pattern of Pakistani English. Corpus based approach was adopted to conduct the diachronic study. Corpus from 1947 to 1986 was collected and divided into the four decades. Main concern of the study was to conduct the comparative study about the use of (to infinitive) and gerund as verb complement and to see the change with the passage of time about these complementation patterns. Twenty verbs were selected with the help of grammars and the research conducted by (Aziz 2010) and reported the verbs which carry (to infinitive) pattern. Those twenty common verbs were selected with on the basis of research and with the help of grammar which carry both these patterns. Corpus was analyzed with the
help of Antconc concordance lines were developed of these verbs and each verb with its concordance and all forms of verbs were studied separately. Results of the study showed Pakistani writers use (to infinitive) pattern at a higher frequency than gerund as verb complementation and this tendency changed with the passage of time. Results of the 1st corpus higher frequency of gerund but with the passage of time this tendency changed and frequency of (to infinitive) increased. It can be concluded from the study that use of gerund which works as noun makes the process of nominalization. Nominalization makes the writing more complex, Pakistani being non-native avoid the use of gerund and use (to infinitive) at a higher frequency and keep the writing simple.