This paper focuses on the Dutch om-alternation, i.e. the variation between infinitivalcomplements (=IC) with and without the prepositional complementizer om, as demonstratedin Hij beloofde om op tijd te komen vs. Hij beloofde op tijd te komen ('He promisedto be on time'). The choice between one of the two alternating constructions is not randomas it depends on different syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors. We test theeffects of a series of potential factors culled from the literature through a multifactorialcorpus investigation on the basis of real-language examples from the Dutch Parallel Corpus,with special attention for register effects - the possible influence of register on thisalternation has not been addressed before. This attention for register can be related to theemerging Cognitive Sociolinguistics movement, which has led to a new or renewed attentionfor the possible influence of all kinds of lectal factors on syntactic alternation phenomena.The analysis will reveal that both register and complexity-related factors play asignificant role in the choice between the two alternants.
