At the intersection

Abstract The goal of this article is to demonstrate the ways in which cognitive linguistics (CL) and historical linguistics (HL) interact with each other. Although CL has no free-standing theory of change, the framework has permitted and continues to inspire discussion of the relationship between synchrony and diachrony, a topic which has been precluded by other theories. Following this discussion is a survey of ways in which the apparatus of CL has been applied to HL: included are the evolution of prototypes and semantic sets, grammaticalization, iconicity, analogical change, and the role of both frequency and figurative language in overall considerations of change.