Abstract :
This article offers a constructional approach to complement-taking mental predicates
(CTMPs), e.g. I think, accommodating a whole class of CTMP types (I THINK, I SUPPOSE,
I IMAGINE etc.) and their variant forms (e.g. I would think, I should have imagined) in a
constructional taxonomy. CTMPs are generally believed to depend on their prototypical
simple present form in order to convey an epistemic/evidential meaning. Corpus evidence
shows, however, that there exist several variant forms that equally function as interpersonal
modifications. Such variation has long presented a stumbling block to studies approaching
CTMPs from the point of view of grammaticalization theory, since this framework has
traditionally been rather inimical to the idea that a grammaticalized item may encompass
a paradigm of variant forms and instead requires internal fixation into an unalterable
form. It will be argued that CTMPs should be regarded as constructions constituting a
taxonomy characterized by several levels of schematicity. It will be demonstrated that the
most frequently used CTMP, I THINK, has reached the highest degree of entrenchment and
schematicity, and consequently sanctions the widest range of variant forms, which are
disseminated throughout the taxonomy by virtue of analogization.
