Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English: (47 Studies in Language Companion Series)

The focus of this carefully selected volume concerns the existence, frequency, and form of composite/complex predicates (the “take a look” construction) in earlier periods of the English language, an area of scholarship which has been virtually neglected. The various contributions seek to understand the collocational and idiomatic aspects of these structures, as well as of related structures such as complex prepositions (e.g., “on account of”) and phrasal verbs (e.g., “look up”), in their earliest manifestations. Moreover, study of these constructions at the individual stages of English leads to diachronic questions concerning their development, raising issues pertaining to grammaticalization, lexicalization, and idiomaticization-processes which are not always clearly differentiated nor fully understood.

Table of Contents:
1. Table of Contents; 2. List of Tables; 3. Preface; 4. Chapter 1: Introduction (by Brinton, Laurel J.); 5. 1.1 Introduction; 6. 1.2 Description of the structures studied in this volume; 7. 1.3 Definition of "idiom" and "collocation"; 8. 1.4 Problems in the diachronic development of the structures; 9. 1.5 Conclusion; 10. Notes; 11. Chapter 2: The Origin of the Composite Predicate in Old English (by Akimoto, Minoji); 12. 2.1 Introduction; 13. 2.2 A note on previous studies; 14. 2.3 Problems for the study of composite predicates in Old English; 15. 2.4 Rivalry of verbs and the classification of collocations; 16. 2.5 Collocations of (ge)don and (ge)macian; 17. 2.6 Collocations of sellan and giefan; 18. 2.7 Collocations of (ge)niman and tacan; 19. 2.8 Collocations of habban; 20. 2.9 Discussion; 21. 2.10 Conclusion; 22. Notes; 23. Texts; 24. Chapter 3: Composite Predicates in Middle English (by Matsumoto, Meiko); 25. 3.1 Introduction; 26. 3.2 Definition of a CP; 27. 3.3 Form of the CP in ME; 28. 3.4 Verbs taking the same agentive object; 29. 3.5 CPs and corresponding simple verbs; 30. 3.6 Modification of CPs; 31. 3.7 Passivization; 32. 3.8 Figurative meaning; 33. 3.9 Conclusion; 34. Notes; 35. Texts; 36. Chapter 4: Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs in The Paston Letters (by Tanabe, Harumi); 37. 4.1 Introduction; 38. 4.2 Composite predicates in The Paston Letters; 39. 4.3 Composite predicates versus simple verbs; 40. 4.4 Idiomatization; 41. 4.5 Phrasal verbs in The Paston Letters; 42. 4.6 Conclusion; 43. Notes; 44. Texts; 45. Chapter 5: Verbal Phrases and Phrasal Verbs in Early Modern English (by Hiltunen, Risto); 46. 5.1 Introduction; 47. 5.2 Data and sampling method; 48. 5.3 Verbal phrases; 49. 5.4 Phrasal verbs; 50. 5.5 Conclusion; 51. Appendix: The Corpus; 52. Notes; 53. Chapter 6: Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Verbs in Early Modern English (by Kyto, Merja); 54. 6.1 Aims and approach; 55. 6.2 The properties and development of the verb + deverbal noun constructions; 56. 6.3 The selectional criteria adopted; 57. 6.4 The data: an overall view of the types and tokens; 58. 6.5 Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms; 59. 6.6 Extralinguistic patterning; 60. 6.7 Collocational and idiomatic characteristics of the uses; 61. 6.8 Simple verb vs. verb + noun construction: USE vs. MAKE/HAVE USE and CARE vs. TAKE/HAVE CARE; 62. 6.9 Conclusion; 63. Appendix: The verb + noun constructions excerpted from the Early Modern English section of the Helsinki Corpus included in this study; 64. Notes; 65. Chapter 7: Collocations and Idioms in Late Modern English (by Akimoto, Minoji); 66. 7.1 Introduction; 67. 7.2 Verbo-nominal structures; 68. 7.3 Preposition + NP + prepositional phrases; 69. 7.4 Phrasal verbs; 70. 7.5 How does idiomatization take place?; 71. 7.6 Concluding remarks; 72. Notes; 73. Texts; 74. Chapter 8: A Historical Overview of Complex Predicate Types (by Traugott, Elizabeth Closs); 75. 8.1 Introduction; 76. 8.2 Stability in the structure of complex predicates; 77. 8.3 Changes in the set of strings defined as complex predicates; 78. 8.4 Changes in degree of compositionality; 79. 8.5 Complex predicates, lexicalization, and idiomatization; 80. 8.6 Summary; 81. Notes; 82. References for the Volume; 83. Subject Index; 84. Name Index; 85. List of Tables; 86. Table 2.1: Composite predicates with simplex counterparts in Old English; 87. Table 4.1: Frequencies of composite predicates in The Paston Letters; 88. Table 4.2: Frequencies of composite predicates by decades; 89. Table 4.3: Nominal modifiers of composite predicates; 90. Table 4.4: Nouns with zero-article or a/an; 91. Table 4.5: Verbal substitution in composite predicates; 92. Table 4.6: Prepositions occurring with composite predicates; 93. Table 4.7: Frequency of phrasal verbs according to particles; 94. Table 5.1: The distribution of the patterns according to types; 95. Table 5.2: The distribution of the patterns according to tokens; 96. Table 5.3: Verbal phrases containing suffixed and etymologically related nouns; 97. Table 5.4: Verbal phrases in EModE poetic texts; 98. Table 5.5: Verbal phrases in EModE prose texts; 99. Table 5.6: Verbal phrases in Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies; 100. Table 6.1: Types, tokens, and type/token ratios; 101. Table 6.2: The occurrence of types; 102. Table 6.3: The occurrence of tokens; 103. Table 6.4a: Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms: types; 104. Table 6.4b: Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms: tokens; 105. Table 6.5: The occurrence of tokens per each subperiod; 106. Table 6.6: The distribution of occurrences across text types; 107. Table 6.7: Singular vs. plural nouns; 108. Table 6.8: Pre- and postmodification in the constructions studied; 109. Table 6.9a: The use of a deverbal noun with more than one verb in the data; 110. Table 6.9b: The use of a deverbal noun with three or four verbs

Review :
This carefully and attractively produced volume promises to be a valuable resource to scholars with a particular interest in the growth and enrichment of the English language through complex verb development. This collection contributes usefully to teaching as well as scholarship.