The contrast between states-of-affairs and propositions in clausal complementation: Crosslinguistic perspectives

This thesis is a crosslinguistic study of the semantic contrast between states-of-affairs and propositions in clausal complementation. The aim of the thesis is to provide a cognitive-functional analysis of grammatical contrasts between clausal complements expressing states-of-affairs and propositions. The following questions are addressed: 1) To what extent does the distinction between
states-of-affairs and propositions motivate grammatical contrasts in clausal complementation? 2) What is the status of reported speech in a typology of complementation based on the contrast between
states-of-affairs and propositions? and 3) How can the contrast between states-of-affairs and propositions be used as a point of departure for describing the system of complementation in a specific language? The thesis presents a crosslinguistic study of a sample of 173 languages and a descriptive
study of clausal complementation in the Bantu language Ruuli.