THATD That deletion

Biber N60 Xiao N102 MFTE THATD

Definition

Omission of subordinator “that” where it could appear (e.g., “I know [that] he left”).

Detection Rules

Verb with ccomp dependent where no “that” token intervenes. Requires post-filter: check that no token with word “that” appears between verb and complement clause head.

semgrex{pos:/VB.*/}=verb >ccomp {}=comp

Requires: pos, dep

⚠ One of the harder features to detect automatically. False positives from direct speech complements. Semgrex finds candidates; post-filter needed to confirm “that” is absent.

Prompt LLM to identify verb complement clauses where “that” has been omitted. Provide sentence context and ask whether “that” could be inserted before a clause.

Requires: llm

mfte

MFTE that-deletion: public/private/suasive verb followed by a subject NP and then a verb or modal, with no intervening “that” (lines 1028-1031). Three patterns of increasing NP complexity: (1) verb + NP-head + verb, (2) verb + modifier + NP-head + verb, (3) verb + modifier + adj + noun + verb. POS-based positional matching (no dependency parsing needed).

p1 
cql[lemma={words} & pos="VB.*"] [pos="DT|PRP|NN|NNS|NNP|NNPS"] [pos="MD|VB.*"]
p2 
cql[lemma={words} & pos="VB.*"] [pos="JJ.*|RB.*|DT|CD|PRP|PRP\\$"] [pos="NN.*|CD"] [pos="MD|VB.*"]
p3 
cql[lemma={words} & pos="VB.*"] [pos="JJ.*|RB.*|DT|CD|PRP|PRP\\$"] [pos="JJ.*"] [pos="NN.*"] [pos="MD|VB.*"]
combine: p1 | p2 | p3
Word list (150 items)
accept acknowledge add admit affirm agree allege allow announce anticipate appear argue arrange ascertain ask assert beg believe bet boast calculate certify check claim command comment complain concede conclude confess confide confirm conjecture consider contend convey decide declare decree deduce deem demand demonstrate deny desire determine discern disclose discover doubt dream enjoin ensure entreat establish estimate exclaim expect explain fancy fear feel find forecast foresee foretell forget gather grant guarantee guess hear hint hold hope imagine imply indicate infer insist instruct insure intend judge know learn maintain mean mention move note notice object observe ordain order perceive pledge pray predict prefer presume presuppose pretend proclaim promise pronounce prophesy propose protest prove realise realize reason recall reckon recognise recognize recommend reflect remark remember repeat reply report request require resolve reveal rule see seem sense show signify state stipulate submit suggest suppose suspect swear testify think understand urge vote vow warn write

Requires: lemma, pos

pybiber

Three pybiber that-deletion patterns sharing the same verb matchlist: (1) verb + nsubj + verb, (2) verb + DT + nsubj + verb, (3) verb + DT + amod + nsubj + verb. Uses upos=“VERB” throughout to exclude auxiliaries (UPOS=AUX). pybiber’s verb_matchlist does not include “say” (unlike MFTE’s list).

p1 
cql[lemma={words} & upos="VERB"] [dep="nsubj" & pos!="WP"] [upos="VERB" & pos!="VBG"]
p2 
cql[lemma={words} & upos="VERB"] [pos="DT"] [dep="nsubj"] [upos="VERB"]
p3 
cql[lemma={words} & upos="VERB"] [pos="DT"] [dep="amod"] [dep="nsubj"] [upos="VERB"]
combine: p1 | p2 | p3
Word list (150 items)
accept acknowledge add admit affirm agree allege allow announce anticipate appear argue arrange ascertain ask assert beg believe bet boast calculate certify check claim command comment complain concede conclude confess confide confirm conjecture consider contend convey decide declare decree deduce deem demand demonstrate deny desire determine discern disclose discover doubt dream enjoin ensure entreat establish estimate exclaim expect explain fancy fear feel find forecast foresee foretell forget gather grant guarantee guess hear hint hold hope imagine imply indicate infer insist instruct insure intend judge know learn maintain mean mention move note notice object observe ordain order perceive pledge pray predict prefer presume presuppose pretend proclaim promise pronounce prophesy propose protest prove realise realize reason recall reckon recognise recognize recommend reflect remark remember repeat reply report request require resolve reveal rule see seem sense show signify state stipulate submit suggest suppose suspect swear testify think understand urge vote vow warn write

Requires: lemma, pos, upos, dep

Normalization

Per finite_verbs

Examples

I thought he just meant our side.

Source: le_foll_2024

I know that’s not his thing.

Source: le_foll_2024

I mean you’ll do everything.

Source: le_foll_2024

Sources

  • biber_1988 — Biber, Douglas (1988) : Variation across Speech and Writing
  • mfte — Le Foll, Elen & Shakir, Muhammad (2023/2025) : Multi-Feature Tagger of English (MFTE) — Python version
  • pybiber — Brown, David West & Reinhart, Alex (2026) : pybiber — Python package for linguistic feature extraction and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
  • xiao_2009 — Xiao, Richard (2009) : Multidimensional analysis and the study of world Englishes

Notes

Second-highest loading on D1. Strong involvement marker.

View YAML source