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This paper investigates the variation between to-infinitive and gerund-participle complements with the verbs dread and fear. Specifically, it aims to explain the reasons underlying complement selection with these two verbs as well as a number of semantic effects which arise with these complement clause constructions. The approach taken here argues that an explanation of these constructions must be predicated upon an analysis of the semantic content of the items of which each one is composed. Three factors are proposed as being relevant to explaining the issues: (1) the meaning and function of the gerund-participle, (2) the meaning and function of the to-infinitive, and (3) the meaning of the main predicate. The findings of this study are in line with those of previous studies which have applied the same approach. This paper is intended as a small contribution to ongoing efforts to crack the complementation issue in English.
