Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 1.1. Introduction 1.2 Background and Aims 1.3 Survey 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Problems with Dictionary Descriptions 2.3 CIDE, COBUILD, LDOCE and OALD: A Survey 2.4 "Put, Set, Lay and Place": Partial Synonymy 2.5 The Plysemy of "Put, Set, Lay and Place" 2.6 Conclusion 3.1 The Nature of Meaning 3.1.1 Different Views 3.1.2 Polysemy and Prototypicality 3.1.3 The Cognitive Linguistic View of Meaning: a Preliminary Assessment 3.2 The Descriptive Apparatus of Cognitive Linguistics 3.2.1 Describing Figurative Use 3..3 Describing Verbal Meaning 3.4 Conclusion: Putting CL into Pratice 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Manipulation Verbs in Old English 4.1.1 Some Onomasiological Perspective 4.1.2 "Lecgan" 4.1.3 "Settan" 4.1.4 "Gesettan" 4.1.5 Summary: "Potian, Lecgan, Setten and Putten" 4.2 "Leien, Setten and Putten" in Middle English 4.2.1 Some Onomasiological Perspective 4.2.2 "Leien" 4.2.3 "Setten" 4.2.4 "Putten" 4.2.5 Summary: "Placen, Leisen, Setten and Putten" 4.3 New Developments in Early Modern English 4.3.1 Some Onomasiological Perpective 4.3.2 "Place" 4.3.3 "Lay" 4.3.4 "Set" 4.3.5 "Put" 4.3.6 Summary: "Place, Lay, Set and Put" 4.4 Conclusion: Paths of Extension 5.1 Types of Evidence: Pros and Cons of Corpus Based Research 5.2 Constructing a Representative and Informative Corpus 5.3 Stages in the Analysis 5.3.1 Patterning 5.3.2 Profile 5.3.3 Deverbal Uses 5.3.4 The Domain Perspective 5.4 Conclusion 6.1 Retrospect 6.1.1 A Lexicographical Description of "Put, Set, Lay and Place" 6.1.2 A Diachronic Perspective on "Put, Set, Lat and Place" 6.1.3 Summary 6.2 Frequency and Distribution within the Corpus 6.2.1 LOB vs. LD 6.2.2 Subcorpora 6.2.3 Summary 6.3 A Preliminary Survey of Patterning Differences 6.3.1 Verbal and Deverbal Uses 6.3.2 Argument Strucutre 6.3.3 Prepositions and Particles Extending the Profile 6.3.4 Summary 6.4 A Preliminary Survey of Profiling Differences 6.4.1 Types of TR 6.4.2 Types of LM1 6.4.3 Types of LM2 6.4.4 Summary 6.5 Conclusion: A Preliminary Characterization of "Put, Set, Lay and Place" 7.1 The Patterning of "Lay" 7.2 The Profile of "Lay" 7.2.1 Types of TR 7.2.2 Types of LM1 7.2.3 Types of LM2 7.2.4 An Additional LM3? 7.2.5 Summary: the Nature of Verbal "Lay" 7.3 Deverbal Uses of "Lay" 7.3.1 Adjectival Uses 7.3.2 Nominalizations 7.3.3 Summary 7.4 The Domain Perspective 7.4.1 Spatial Uses 7.4.2 Affecting a Human Being 7.4.3 Affecting an Entity 7.4.4 Creation 7.4.5 Linguistic Action 7.4.6 Behavior and Experience 7.4.7 Conclusion Part 1: The Meaning of "Lay" 7.5 Conclusion Part 2: Methodological Issues 8.1 The Patterning of "Set" 8.2 The Profile of "Set" 8.2.1 Types of TR 8.2.2 Types of LM1 8.2.3 Types of LM2 8.2.4 An Additional LM3? 8.2.5 Summary: the Nature of Verbal "Set" 8.3 Deverbal Uses of "Set" 8.3.1 Adjectival Uses 8.3.2 Nominalizations 8.3.3 Summary 8.4 The Domain Perspective 8.4.1 Spatial Uses 8.4.2 Affecting a Human Being 8.4.3 Affecting an Entity 8.4.4 Creation 8.4.5 Linguistic Action 8.4.6 Behavior and Experience 8.4.7 Conclusion Part 1: The Meaning of "Set" 8.5 Conclusion Part 2: Methodological Issues 9.1 The Patterning of "Put" 9.2 The Profile of "Put" 9.2.1 Types of TR 9.2.2 Types of LM1 9.2.3 Types of LM2 9.2.4 An Additional LM3? 9.2.5 Summary: the Nature of Verbal "Put" 9.3 Deverbal Uses of "Put" 9.3.1 Adjectival Uses 9.3.2 Nominalizations 9.3.3 Summary 9.4 The Domain Perspective 9.4.1 Spatial Uses 9.4.2 Affecting a Human Being 9.4.3 Affecting an Entity 9.4.4 Creation 9.4.5 Linguistic Action 9.4.6 Behavior and Experience 9.4.7 Conclusion Part 1: The Meaning of "Put" 9.5 Conclusion Part 2: Methodological Issues 10.1 The Patterning of "Place" 10.2 The Profile of "Place" 10.2.1 Types of TR 10.2.2 Types of LM1 10.2.3 Types of LM2 10.2.4 An Additional LM3? 10.2.5 Summary: the Nature of Verbal "Place" 10.3 Deverbal Uses of "Place" 10.3.1 Adjectival Uses 10.3.2 Nominalizations 10.3.3 Summary 10.4 The Domain Perspective 10.4.1 Spatial Uses 10.4.2 Affecting a Human Being 10.4.3 Affecting an Entity 10.4.4 Creation 10.4.5 Linguistic Action 10.4.6 Behavior and Experience 10.4.7 Conclusion Part 1: The Meaning of "Place" 10.5 Conclusion Part 2: Methodological Issues 11.1 Methodology 11.2 Descriptive Findings 11.2.1 "Put" 11.2.1 "Set" 11.2.1 "Lay" 11.2.1 "Place" 11.2.5 Intercategorial Comparison 11.3 Theoretical Issues 11.3.1 On category Structure 11.3.2 On the Nature of Verbs 11.4 Retrospect and Prospect References This work outlines a Cognitive Linguistic methodology for the analysis of verbal meaning, which is applied in a corpus-based investigation of the related English high-frequency verbs 'put', 'set', 'lay' and 'place'. The first part takes a closer look at lexicography and lexical semantics, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. The survey shows how a Cognitive Linguistic approach provides a framework which allows for differentiation, but also provides coherence. The first part results in a methodology providing for an analysis in three stages focusing on patterning, profiling and base (or cognitive domains). The descriptive application in the second part demonstrates how this type of approach, which results in different clusters of specific uses (according to patterns, argument-slots in the profile, and domain matrixes) provides a principled differentiation between uses and at the same time uncovers a network of relations between them. The analysis highlights the role of cognitive processes like metaphor and metonymy, and indicates relevant image schemata and general usage types. The resulting description of the four verbs provides a motivation as to why, for example, 'put' is the high-frequency manipulation verb, why 'set' is often used to conceptualize activation or motion, or why all verbs but 'put' conceptualize arrangement. The findings also suggest that uses are entrenched (or salient) at different levels of abstraction, and that there are salient links between uses, supporting a polysemous analysis. (Publisher Book Description)