Introduction: historical semantics and cognition. Section 1 Theories and models: cognitive semantics and structural semantics, John R. Taylor; diachronic semantics towards a unified theory of language change? Helmut Ludtke; why do new meanings occur? a cognitive typology of the motivations for lexical semantic change, andreas Blank; diachronic prototype semantics - a digest, Dirk Geeraerts; cognitive semantics and diachronic semantics - the values and evolution of classes, Francois Rastier. Section 2 Descriptive categories: losing control - grammaticization, subjectification, and transparency, Ronald W. Langacker; the rhetoric of counter-expectation in semantic change -a study in subjectification, Elizabeth Closs Traugott; synecdoche as a cognitive and communicative strategy, Brigitte Nerlich, David D. Clarke; laws and thought, knowledge and lexical change, Beatrice Warren. Section 3 Case studies: intensifiers as targets and sources of semantic change, Ekkehard Koning, Peter Siemund; cognitive ease and lexical borrowing - the recategorization of body parts in Romance, Thomas Krefeld; cognitive aspects of semantic change and polysemy -the semantic space have/be.