A Statistical Analysis of English Double Object Alternation

Author(s): Williams, Robert S | Abstract: This paper explores the phenomenon of post verbal alternation in English double object constructions, and presents a statistical model for predicting the position of the indirect object in instances where alternation is unconstrained (e.g. "Roger gave us the clothes," vs. "Roger gave the clothes to us."). Analysis covers a large set of written and oral American English data using a parametric multiple regression instrument to establish the relationship of a set of grammatical and discourse variables to a binary dependent variable, in this case the post-verbal position of the indirect object.

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