Ljubica Leone is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Milan, Italy. She received her PhD in Literary and Linguistic Studies from the University of Salerno, Italy.

• List of figuresList of tables AcknowledgmentsList of abbreviations and conventions Chapter 1. Composite predicates in 1750–18501.1. Background1.2. Linguistic overview of composite predicates1.3. Previous studies and research aims1.4. The corpus: the Late Modern English-Old Bailey Corpus1.4.1. Corpus compilation: source data, sampling, text types1.4.2. Corpus architecture and size1.5. Method: selectional criteria, corpus-based techniques, and statistical tests1.6. The structure of the bookChapter 2. History 2.1. Old English and Middle English: the establishment of composite predicates2.2. Early Modern English: the spread of composite predicates2.3. Late Modern English: stability and change2.4. Present Day English: current forms and uses Chapter 3. Linguistic Features 3.1. Distribution of composite predicates3.2. The base verbs3.3. Phrasal profile and productivity of composite predicates3.3.1. Phraseological variation across the years 1750–18503.3.2. The use of deverbal nouns with more than one verb3.3.3. Productivity Chapter 4. Composite Predicates Between Stability and Change4.1. Stable composite predicates 4.2. Morpho-syntactic features of composite predicate4.2.1. Syntactic patterns4.2.2. Articles and determiners4.2.3. Internal modification4.2.4. The use of plural forms4.2.5. Passivization4.3. Semantic featuresChapter 5. Processes of change5.1. Grammaticalization and lexicalization5.2. Phraseological variation and layering between alternative prepositions5.3. The coinage of new composite predicates5.4. Semantic changeChapter 6. ConclusionAppendix: list of composite predicatesReferencesIndex