Abstract English mental adjectives can have their complements marked by a variety of prepositions. Angry can pattern with about , at , and with . Drawing on data from COCA, this paper investigates the alternation of these prepositional phrase complements (PPCs). Exploratory multivariate analysis reveals animacy as primary predictor. In human contexts, competition is mainly between at and with ; in nonhuman contexts between at and about . Next, modelling these localized alternations, predicate type and genre emerge as the main determinants, while semantic distinctions traditionally emphasized in the literature, such as intensity and instantaneity, fail to reach significance. The effects associated with these predictors differ across the localized contexts, and predictive accuracy remains moderate. Localized probabilistic modelling is therefore best understood as an analytical approximation rather than a full account of PPC competition, underscoring the need for more integrated approaches to alternation involving multiple competing forms.
Cai et al. (Sun,) studied this question.