TY - BOOK AU - Iglesias Rábade,Luis TI - Semantic erosion of Middle English prepositions T2 - Studies in English medieval language and literature SN - 978-3-6316-1125-8 U1 - 427.02 21E PY - 2011/// CY - Frankfurt am Main PB - Peter Lang KW - English language KW - Middle English, 1100-1500 KW - Prepositions KW - Semantics N1 - Bibliogr. p. [209]-230 N2 - "This book is a statistical study of Middle English prepositions. A detailed account of the occurrences of all prepositions in prose and poetry is given, including their dialectical and text-type distribution. All data are presented in abundant tables and figures. The analysis is based on textual evidence provided by more than 21,000 samples extracted from the Helsinki Corpus of Middle English and the Middle English Dictionary. The study demonstrates how Middle English prepositions underwent semantic erosion, either via de-lexicalisation or through collocational and idiomatic processes. The influence of French in that semantic erosion is also dealt with, and illustrated with reference to French samples from the 'Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française'"--Publisher's description, p. [4] of cover ER -