Meaning in the History of English -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Uncovering layers of meaning in the history of the English language -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Layers of meaning -- 3. The significance of context -- 4. New resources for old and new questions -- 5. Overview -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Layers of reading in the Old English Bede -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The manuscript -- 3. Scribal repetitions -- 4. "Conservative" textual emendations -- 5. Phonological emendations -- 6. Chapter-initial capitals -- 7. Scratched glosses -- 8. Conclusion -- References -- Unlikely-looking Old English verb forms -- 1. Setting the scene -- 2. strade for strude? -- 3. abunne for abanne or abonne? -- 4. aetan = etan -- aettan, aytan, aydan: Preterit aytte -- ahyþan -- 5. agette in Riddle 83 line 7 -- 6. Eadwine's gloss æge fille rendering ad implebo -- 7. Conclusion -- References -- On the importance of noting uncertainty in etymological research -- 1. The traditional view -- 1.1 The etymology in outline -- 1.2 The principal meanings in English and parallels for these among cognates in other Germanic languages -- 1.3 Dating the emergence of the meaning 'road' -- 2. Exploring a complex set of forms and meanings recorded in Older Scots -- 3. A radically different etymological hypothesis, for both English road 'road' and Older Scots rode, rod 'road' (Word C) -- 4. Two further hypotheses in brief -- 4.1 False analysis of Old English trod in compounds -- 4.2 A possible Celtic input -- 5. A review of evidence that Old English rād or its reflex may have had the meaning 'road' before the late sixteenth century -- 5.1 Evidence from the meanings of cognates in other Germanic languages -- 5.2 The Celtic angle revisited -- 5.3 Old English -rād as the second element of compounds.

5.4 A possible fourteenth-century example -- 5.5 Evidence from place names -- 5.6 Evidence from later regional varieties of English -- 5.7 Evidence from Scots -- 6. Summing up road -- 7. Some broader implications -- References -- Dictionaries -- "A Wiltshire word, according to Kennett" -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (1847): An overview -- 3. MS Lansd. 1033: A brief description -- 4. MS Lansd. 1033 and DAP -- 5. Concluding remarks -- References -- Enforcing or effacing useful distinctions? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. History of imply -- 3. History of infer -- 4. From 'personal deduce' to 'personal suggest' -- 5. Polite use of infer -- 6. Influence of prescriptive rules -- Data -- References -- The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Contextualising language use: What is context? -- 3. Meaning specificity in dictionary definitions: A case study of the term cull -- 4. The material -- 4.1 The texts -- 4.2 Search procedures -- 5. Meaning construction of cull in actual language use: Evidence from historical data -- 5.1 Code term for a victim: A contextual analysis of cull in the Proceedings -- 5.2 Celebrating the criminal lifestyle: A contextual analysis of cull in ECCO -- 5.2.1 Use of the term cull in verse -- 5.2.2 Use of the term cull in prose -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Data -- References -- Appendix 1: Old Bailey Proceedings references -- Appendix 2: References for printed material from ECCO -- Let's talk about uton* -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The form of uton -- 3. The position of uton within the clause -- 4. Uton and negation -- 5. Problems with classifying uton as non-verbal -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Exploring part-of-speech profiles and authorship attribution in Early Modern medical texts.

1. Introduction -- 2. Authorship attribution -- 3. EMEMT -- 3.1 Word class annotation -- 4. Method -- 5. Results and discussion -- 5.1 Text type effect and evidence against shared authorship -- 5.2 Explaining 'false positives', or what to do with unexplained similarities -- 6. Discussion and conclusion -- Data -- References -- Appendix 1. Relative distances of clusters by wordclass -- The positioning of adverbial clauses in the Paston letters* -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The organization of the present research -- 3. Overall tendencies and discussion -- 4. The length of adverbial clauses -- 5. An additional factor -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1. Adverbial clauses in initial, medial, and final positions (raw frequencies) -- Appendix 2. Short adverbial clauses in initial, medial, and final positions (raw frequencies) -- Appendix 3. Adverbial clauses in initial, medial, and final positions within subordinate clauses (raw frequencies) -- Complexity and genre conventions -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The genre of proclamations: Sociohistorical context -- 3. Complexity and legal language -- 4. The Corpus of Early Modern English Statutes -- 5. Layout and textual structure -- 6. Coordination -- 7. Coordination and sociohistorical context -- 8. Conclusion -- References -- Formulaic discourse across Early Modern English medical genres -- 1. Introduction: Formulaic discourse in historical texts -- 2. Lexical bundles in historical research -- 2.1 Introduction to lexical bundles -- 2.2 Lexical bundles in historical corpora -- 2.3 Lexical bundles: Solutions for EMEMT -- 3. Formulaic language in medical texts -- 3.1 Previous scholarship -- 3.2 Narrowing down the research questions -- 4. Investigating formulaicity in EMEMT text categories -- 4.1 Degree of overlap: A diachronic outlook -- 4.2 Lexical bundle overlaps: Semantic areas.

4.2.1 Quantification, measurements and dosage -- 4.2.2 The body and its parts -- 4.2.3 Time and sequence -- 4.2.4 Ingredients -- 4.2.5 Quality description -- 4.2.6 Explicit reference to disease and cure -- 4.2.7 Reference to abstract nouns -- 4.2.8 Reference to humans -- 4.3 Lexical bundle overlaps: Functional areas -- 4.3.1 Clarification -- 4.3.2 Conditionals -- 4.3.3 Modality and hedges -- 4.3.4 Efficacy phrase fragments -- 4.3.5 Directives -- 4.4 Lexical bundle overlaps: Structural frames -- 4.4.1 Copula verbs -- 4.4.2 Prepositional phrase fragments -- 5. General observations and further research -- Data -- References -- Appendix -- "Treasure of pore men", "countrymans friend" or "gentlewomans companion"? On the use of interpersonal strategies in the titles of Early Modern English medical texts -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Early Modern English medical texts -- 3. Materials and method -- 4. References to the reader (overt and covert references) -- 5. References to authorities -- 6. Names of medical compilations -- 7. Conclusions -- Data -- References -- "I saw ye Child burning in ye fire" -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Material and method -- 3. Evidentials in ETED -- 3.1 Linguistic realizations -- 3.2 Semantic categories and pragmatic functions -- 3.2.1 Quotatives -- 3.2.2 Sensory -- 3.2.3 Inference -- 3.2.4 Assumption -- 4. Conclusion -- Data -- References -- "I saw ye Child burning in ye fire" -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Material and method -- 3. Evidentials in ETED -- 3.1 Linguistic realizations -- 3.2 Semantic categories and pragmatic functions -- 3.2.1 Quotatives -- 3.2.2 Sensory -- 3.2.3 Inference -- 3.2.4 Assumption -- 4. Conclusion -- Data -- References -- Name index -- Subject index.