THE USE OF COMPLEMENTS
THE PREAENCE VERSUS ABSENCE OF THAT
A question that ESL/EFL teachers will hear asked over and over again by students concerns the environments in which an expressed that is or is not required in object that-complement clauses. The answer seems to be settable partially in syntactic terms and partially in terms of disclauses conditions. Bolinger (1972) suggests determining factor is the relative formality of discourse: the register. The more likely it is for that to be expressed. Another factor concern specific verbs: the greater the relative frequency of the main verb in discourse, the more likely it is that the complementizer will be absent.