The acquisition of complement clause constructions in English, like in other languages, has received relatively little attention from researchers, even though the development of these complex sentence structures can shed light on the language acquisition process, and can hence inform us about the accurateness of suggestions put forward by different theoretical stances. The previous corpus research that has been conducted in this field has been based on relatively sparsely collected datasets, while a large majority of experimental studies have focused on sentences with to-infinitive clauses as control structures often ignoring other aspects of development and other construction types. Due to the need for a detailed investigation, the present thesis first investigated the development of all finite and non-finite complement clause constructions in one English-speaking child's densely collected data (5h/week). This analysis showed that many complement clause constructions appear within a relatively short period of time during the latter half of the third year of life. We suggest that input, cognitive/functional salience, and semantic and pragmatic factors are likely to play an important role in the development and appearance of these constructions. The effect of input was then investigated further by looking at (1) complementizer omission errors produced with certain non-finite complement clauses, and (2) ACC-for- NOM lpsg sentence subject errors in 14-17 children's speech. These errors were found to be tightly linked to the competition between different forms in the input that the children were exposed to. The complementizer omissions were shown to be related to children learning one- (want-X, going-X) and two-word chunks (want-to-X, going-to-X), which were competing for output. The ACC-for-NOM errors were linked to the input and competition of I-verb sequences in simple sentences and me-verb sequences in non-finite complement clause constructions (e. g. Let me do that). Finally, the effect of input was investigated through a narrower window by analysing how input in the immediate discourse context affects one child's production of that- and to-infinitive complement constructions in naturalistic conversation between 2;9 - 3;11. The two constructions were found to differ in the amounts of lexical and structural overlap with adult utterances in prior discourse, suggesting that (a) they developed at a different pace despite emerging very closely together in the child's speech and (b) close-proximity-input may aid the production of difficult sentence structures early in development. The present research largely supports the Constructivist view of language acquisition. In particular, it adds to the previous research suggesting that input plays a major role in children's adult and non-adult-like language knowledge.

The diverse and potentially highly nuanced topographical vocabulary used in English place-names constitutes a fruitful area of research within the fields of semantics and lexicology as well as onomastics. It has been observed in previous studies (Gelling 1984; Gelling and Cole 2000) that topographical terms are used in major settlement names of Old English (OE) origin consistently of landscape features of a particular type, often with highly specialised meanings, for instance OE dūn of a flat-topped hill and OE hōh of a heel-shaped one. This observation, which has been termed the Gelling hypothesis, is today regarded as valid for most, if not all, parts of England. In this thesis, I investigate the meanings and uses of hill-terms, that is, place-name elements referring to hill-features, in the place-names of Northumberland and County Durham, with special reference to previous work by Gelling and Cole. I argue that the Gelling hypothesis is valid in general in the study area, but also that the relationship between the topographical terms and the landscape features to which they refer is often not as straightforward as the hypothesis predicts. I extend the investigation to names of Middle English and Modern English origin, identifying specialised uses which suggest that the contrast in precision between the OE and later hill-terms is not as stark as the hypothesis seems to predict. I also examine the collocations of the commonest hill-terms, finding typical collocates and collocation patterns. This thesis is based on an electronic corpus containing all relevant names found on current OS Landranger 1:50,000 maps; the total number of names in the corpus is 2,227. The discussion of the meanings of the hill-terms is based on a detailed analysis of a representative sample of topographical sites through map-work and field-work, based on the methodological frameworks developed by Gelling and Cole, with the introduction of consistent and clearly defined terminology which allows for more objective analysis.

This study is concerned with semantic change in English along two dimensions: time and place. The second dimension considers controversies that have arisen after the global spread of English and the subsequent emergence of 'deviant' semantic norms as perceived by native speakers. This is linked to the puristic role that English pedagogy has been playing since the heyday of 'etymology'. The thesis argues as follows. Although the prevalence of the Saussurean (1915) principle of 'arbitrariness' has contributed to the sanctioning of semantic change, it has not freed modern linguistics from the shackles of linguistic purism. This purism, however, has acquired a nationalistic face now that English derives its high status from belonging to English-speaking nations. The 'true' meanings of English words are now commonly seen as those that have developed with the rise and development of the Anglo-Saxons' language. These are evolutionary processes and must be accounted for validity in historical semantics. The thesis contributes to the field by offering a corpus-based study of semantic change using the case of the lexical category to show in a diachronic version of Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) work on metaphor. The aim is to stress the role of metaphor in semantic change on both levels of semasiology and onomasiology. A second contribution highlights the extent to which the study of meaning in time in western linguistics is thought to be worthwhile as compared to that of meaning in place. Meaning in place is a synchronic, controversial issue commonly examined along sociolinguistic parameters in which the role of conceptual metaphor in generating local innovations is neglected. A third contribution shows how the focus on spreading the 'core' and 'fixed' norms of the English vocabulary through ELT has shifted attention from the centrality of metaphor to language use. An empirical study is also offered to demonstrate the influence of nationalism on the design of the EFL/EIL lexical syllabus.

This thesis examined the processes involved in reading and recognising acronyms (e.g. BBC, HIV, NATO). Normative values for frequency, age of acquisition, imageability, length, bigram and trigram frequency and orthographic neighbourhood size have been collected, and the influence of these factors on reading, recognition (Chapter 3) and word association responses (Chapter 4) has been assessed. Findings suggest that acronyms are integrated alongside words in the mental lexicon, and that meaning and phonology are particularly important in acronym processing. Chapter 5 extended these findings by investigating the performance of a patient with a specific deficit in semantic processing (semantic dementia). Some acronyms, specifically those which are pronounced by naming each letter in turn, were found to pose few problems for this patient even after her semantic system had been adversely affected by her disorder. Chapter 7 reported an event-related potential study of acronyms, with reference to the N170 and Recognition Potential components. The electrophysiological data supported the interpretation of acronyms as lexical, and particularly influenced by print to pronunciation factors. Findings of the thesis as a whole were discussed in relation to the Dual Route Cascaded model (Coltheart, Perry, Rastle, Langdon & Ziegler, 2001) and the Triangle model (Plaut, Seidenberg & Patterson, 1996). It was concluded that neither model could adequately accommodate acronym reading and recognition processes as they currently stand. Suggestions for amendments to word reading models were made. Potential future research directions are also discussed.

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Colour words abound with figurative meanings, expressing much more than visual signals. Some of these figurative properties are well known; in English, for example, black is associated with EVIL and blue with DEPRESSION. Colours themselves are also described in metaphorical terms using lexis from other domains of experience, such as when we talk of deep blue, drawing on the domain of spatial position. Both metaphor and colour are of central concern to semantic theory; moreover, colour is recognised as a highly productive metaphoric field. Despite this, comparatively few works have dealt with these topics in unison, and even those few have tended to focus on Basic Colour Terms (BCTs) rather than including non-BCTs. This thesis addresses the need for an integrated study of both BCTs and non-BCTs, and provides an overview of metaphor and metonymy within the semantic area of colour. Conducted as part of the Mapping Metaphor project, this research uses the unique data source of the Historical Thesaurus of English (HT) to identify areas of meaning that share vocabulary with colour and thus point to figurative uses. The lexicographic evidence is then compared to current language use, found in the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American (COCA), to test for currency and further developments or changes in meaning. First, terms for saturation, tone and brightness are discussed. This lexis often functions as hue modifiers and is found to transfer into COLOUR from areas such as LIFE, EMOTION, TRUTH and MORALITY. The evidence for cross-modal links between COLOUR with SOUND, TOUCH and DIMENSION is then presented. Each BCT is discussed in turn, along with a selection of non-BCTs, where it is revealed how frequently hue terms engage in figurative meanings. This includes the secondary BCTs, with the only exception being orange, and a number of non-BCTs. All of the evidence discussed confirms that figurative uses of colour originate through a process of metonymy, although these are often extended into metaphor.