The Complementizer That-Deletion in English

The aim of this study is to analyze the complementizer that-deletion in embedded complement clauses in English. This paper is concerned with the alternation between the overt that-complementizer and the zero complementizer by the complementizer deletion (C-deletion or that-deletion) in constructions with a nominal complement that-clause, i.e. [VP Verb [CP that-TP]]. In this paper, we compare that-complementation and zero-complementation in a diachronic grammaticalization and corpus, and show that the complementizer that has its origin in pronouns diachronically and finally becomes to form a C-head of the functional category CP. We provide the syntactic and semantic explanation on the optionality of that-deletion while answering the question why and how that-deletion is getting increasing in use especially with the verb, think, in the informal contexts. With the major causes for the currently increasing use of that-deletion, we are concerned with the contexts in which the overt complementizers or the covert complementizers are preferred.