Complements of ‘Think’ and ‘Want’ (Feature 98)
From Apics
Navigation: ← prev | next → | Overview | Feature Areas | Socioling. Features
Feature Annotation
We consider complement clauses of ‘think’ (e.g. ‘She thinks that her son is at home’) and different-subject complements of ‘want’ (e.g. ‘She wants her son to come home’), and we ask whether they are coded by the same complementizer or a different complementizer, and whether they are expressed by the same construction or a different construction.
If no complementizer is used, this should be regarded as a zero complementizer (i.e. if there is an overt complementizer in the other complement clause, this counts as "different complementizer"). If several different 'think' constructions or several different 'want' constructions are possible (e.g. if the complementizer is optional), please choose the dominant one.
(Note that only different-subject ‘want’ clauses are considered here; same-subject clauses such as She wants to go home typically have a different structure.)
Additional remarks
....
Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Same complementizer, same construction | German Sie glaubt, dass ihr Sohn zu Hause ist. ‘She thinks that her son is at home.’ vs. Sie will, dass ihr Sohn nach Hause kommt. ‘She wants her son to come home.’ |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Same complementizer, different construction | Nigerian Pidgin (se + indicative / se + mek-subjunctive): À tink se dèm go tawn. ‘I think that they went to town.’ vs. À want se mek dèm go tawn. ‘I want them to go to town.’ |
| 3 | Different complementizer, same construction | Guinea Bissau Creole (kuma vs. pa): I pensa kuma si fidju sta na kasa. [she think that her son is at home] ‘She thinks that her son is at home.’ vs. I misti pa si fidju bay kasa. [she want that her son go home] ‘She wants her son to go home.’ |
| 4 | Different complementizer, different construction | English (that + finite clause vs. Ø + to-infinitive) |
WALS No.
(None)
