That-clause

That-clause is the second most common complement type in this part of the corpus with 29.8 per cent of the tokens studied being of that type. However, that-clauses that are introduced by that are in the minority, as only 29.1 per cent of the that-clauses had the explicit form in them. In the following, the

proportions and features of that-clauses are studied in two groups: that-clauses introduced by that, and that-clauses where that is omitted.

5.2.3.1 That-clause introduced by that

Of all the tokens with a that-clause complement, less than a third, or 15 tokens, has the explicit form of that. Interestingly, the reason for the explicit form does not seem to lie on extractions, as none of the 15 tokens had a word order deviating from the regular SVO order. What could cause the involvement of that may be a complexity factor, namely a discontinuity in the form of insertions, as 4 out of the 15 tokens, or 26.7 per cent of them, had an insertion in them. These insertions vary from one word between the word glad and the complement clause, as in (24):

(24) I am glad, however, that no bone is broken or dislocated… (Chesterfield, Letters to His Son, 1746-71)

to longer insertions as in (25) where there is a postmodifying phrase and an addressing term between the main clause and the that-clause:

(25) …and Mr. Williams said, I am glad at my heart, madam, that I was beforehand in my declarations to you… (Richardson, Pamela, 1740).

While the insertions do not seem to have a big role in the complexity of the sentence, there may be another tendency that adds complexity, that is, the subject of each clause. The data suggests that cognitive complexity increases when the subject of a clause changes within a sentence, and therefore triggers the use of the more explicit form, as 14 out of the 15 tokens (93.3 %) had a different subject in the main clause and the that-clause. In all 15 the subject of the higher clause was I and took the

semantic role of Experiencer. In the lower clause, the subject could be +animate or -animate, but the most frequent subject in the lower clause was you with 8 tokens. A -animate lower subject and a lower clause with you as a subject are illustrated below in (26) and (27), respectively, with the lower subject underlined.

(26) I was very glad, that the next part was the prayer, and kneeling…”

(Richardson, Pamela, 1740)

(27) I am glad that you have resolved, and I congratulate you both.

(Reeve, The Old English Baron, 1777)

The sense of the word was systematically sense 1, “to be happy and pleased about something.”

5.2.3.2 That-clause with that omitted

Among the that-clauses, the omission of that was more frequent than having it in the explicit form, as in 68.8 per cent of all that-clauses the introducing that was omitted. As was hypothesized in the previous section, the relation of the subjects in the main and that-clauses may have an effect on

whether or not the lower clause is introduced by the explicit form that. However, it does not seem to be a significant factor when we take a closer look into the complements where that has been omitted, as only 5 tokens actually have the same subject in both the main and the that-clause. That means that even though 84.8 per cent of the Ø that-clauses have a different subject in the clauses, the introducing that is still omitted, and the relation of the subjects in the clauses does not have a strong influence in

determining whether or not to omit the complementizer.

A more important role seems to lie on the complexity of the main clause because insertions in them are significantly less frequent in clauses where that was omitted. In fact, there was an insertion in only 1 token where that was omitted, which means that 97 % of the Ø that tokens were free of any complexity factors. Moreover, the insertion was an addressing term between the higher verb and the that-clause. Vosberg (2003b, 210) has stated that while single-word insertions can be considered complexity factors, in reality they are more easily processed than longer insertions, which seems plausible when looking at the data.

(28) “I am very glad, sir, you have chosen our regiment to be a volunteer in.…”

(Fielding, Tom Jones, 1749)

There is also one instance where the omission of that is probably due to the horror aequi principle as there are two coordinated that-clauses in the sentence, even though it was earlier stated that the principle may not apply when the identical constructions are coordinated.

(29) I am glad you have received, and that you like the diamond buckles.

(Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art…, 1746-71)

The semantic role of the subject with glad offers no surprises, as the subject takes the role of Experiencer without an exception in this subtype as well as in the previous one. The most common subject with this complement type is I, with a few exceptions, but the subject has nonetheless +human quality, as exemplified in (30), with the subject underlined:

(30) The countess-mother was glad my lord was not there-he was never satisfied with the eyes… (Walpole, Letters 1735-48, 1735-48)