This book describes and analyzes various changes in the distribution of copular and passive verb constructions in Old and Middle English, and, by way of these case studies, presents and tests several new theories that have major implications for construction grammar and linguistic change.

• Chapter 1: Environmental linguistics


• Chapter 2: In dialogue with previous studies


• Chapter 3: Theory and method


• Chapter 4: The past tense


• Chapter 5: The present tense


• Chapter 6: Copularization of becumet and weaxet


• Chapter 7: Evaluation of the results


• Appendix 1: list of primary sources cited


• Appendix 2: LEON-alpha


• Appendix 3: Data


• References

Peter Petré holds a PhD in linguistics from the KU Leuven (University of Leuven). His research aims at keeping a wide view, combining insights and research methods from linguistics, history, philosophy, and research on evolutionary systems.