Table of contents -- Preface -- 1. History and Development -- Introduction: On the emergence of diachronic cognitive linguistics -- 2. The Evolution of Language -- On constructing a research model for historical cognitive linguistics (HCL): Some theoretical considerations -- Metaphor in discourse history -- 3. Cognitive Approaches to Syntactic Change -- Where do benefciaries come from and how do they come about? Sources for benefciary expressions in Classical Greek and the typology of benefciary -- Finite and gerundive complementation in Modern and Present-day English: Semantics, variation and change -- 4. Cognitive Approaches to Meaning -- Tracing metonymic polysemy through time: material for object mappings in the OED -- The roles of reader construal and lexicographic authority in the interpretation of Middle English texts -- 5. The Expression of Emotions over Time -- Conceptual networking theory in metaphor evolution: Diachronic variation in models of love -- Cognitive historical approaches to emotions: Pride -- English words for emotions and their metaphors -- 6. Afterword -- Prospects for the past:Perspectives for cognitive diachronic semantics -- Index.