Finite complements of would rather: corpus-based evidence for the rise of the present subjunctive in American English
Finite complements of would rather: corpus-based evidence for the rise of the present subjunctive in American English

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a synchronic and diachronic description of the complementation profile of would (’d) rather based on the BNC, the BNC2014, COCA and COHA corpora. The semantics of would rather triggers the use of the present subjunctive, whose distribution varies in American and Brit ish English. The data from COCA show that in American English the present subjunctive has lost its formal connotations and has become the most preferable choice, whereas in British English its use is rather limited, especially in negative contexts. From a diachronic perspective, both varieties of English show a substantial rise in past indicatives and a decline in modals during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Indicatives, however, have never gained such a strong foothold in Ameri can English, and modals exhibited a more stable level until the mid-20th century, when they began to be replaced by productive subjunctive forms.

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