Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English

The focus of this carefully selected volume concerns the existence, frequency, and form of composite/complex predicates (the “take a look” construction) in earlier periods of the English language, an area of scholarship which has been virtually neglected. The various contributions seek to understand the collocational and idiomatic aspects of these structures, as well as of related structures such as complex prepositions (e.g., “on account of”) and phrasal verbs (e.g., “look up”), in their earliest manifestations. Moreover, study of these constructions at the individual stages of English leads to diachronic questions concerning their development, raising issues pertaining to grammaticalization, lexicalization, and idiomaticization-processes which are not always clearly differentiated nor fully understood.

Karen Steffen Chung in Language78:1, 2002:
This carefully and attractively produced volume promises to be a valuable resource to scholars with a particular interest in the growth and enrichment of the English language through complex verb development.