Prepositional verb/simplex alternation in the Late Modern English period: evidence from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey

The present study aims to describe the prepositional verb/simplex alternation in the Late Modern English period (LModE) and, specifically, in the period 1750-1850. The intention is to examine the semantic prosody exhibited by verbs that bear a synonymous relationship interpreting the results by accounting for the contents of courtroom discourse. Many studies have examined the prepositional verb/simplex alternation and their occurrence explained by considering various factors such as the degree of formality of the texts and stylistic choice. Diachronically, instead, during the Early Modern English period, the relation between prepositional verbs and their simplex counterparts has been linked to the need for emphasis on specific aspects of narration or associated with the different degrees of expressiveness. Yet in no case, has prepositional verb/simplex alternation been examined by accounting for the semantic prosody and their occurrence linked to the speaker’s evaluation of narrated events, nor have other periods been taken into account. The present study is a corpus-based investigation conducted on the Late Modern English - Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a corpus covering the period 1750-1850, which has been compiled by selecting texts from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.