English abstract nouns as conceptual shells: from corpus to cognition

Foundations: Theory, terminology and methodology --; Approaching shell nouns --; The term shell noun --; Defining shell nouns and shell-content complexes in functional terms --; A brief note on the theoretical stance --; The links between shell nouns and contents --; Triggering co-interpretation --; Lexico-grammatical patterns of shell-noun uses --; From identity of reference to experiential identity --; The semantic contributions of different types of complements: a survey of the evidence from verbal complementation --; Basic functions of shell-noun typical patterns --; The systematic investigation of shell nouns --; The From-Corpus-to-Cognition Principle --; Data retrieval --; Cleaning up the data --; Systematic misses of the corpus inquiry --; A survey of the results of the corpus inquiry --; Semantic prerequisites --; Abstractness --; Extensional abstractness and classes of abstract entities --; Stylistic abstractness and grammatical metaphor --; Unspecificity and structure-inherent semantic gaps --; The use of shell nouns --; Describing shell-noun uses --; Degrees of typicality --; Explaining the meanings of shell-noun uses: features and frames --; Factual uses --; Neutral uses --; Causal uses --; Evidential uses --; Comparative uses --; Partitive uses --; Attitudinal factual uses --; Linguistic uses --; Propositional uses --; Illocutionary uses --; Assertive uses --; Rogative uses --; Directive uses --; Commissive uses --; Expressive uses --; Mental uses --; Conceptual uses --; Psychological-state uses --; Creditive uses --; Dubitative uses --; Volitional uses.