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Data on lot/lots

1. An lott off manne fode (Ormulum, c1200) 'a portion of food for men'

2. tat tegg [Farisewisshe menn] wisslike warenn an lott off tatt Judisshenn follc
(Ormulum, c1200) 'that they certainly were a branch of the Jewish people'

3. For to forwerrpenn anig lott Off Moysœsess lare [...] (Ormulum 1200) 'For to reject any
part of Moses' teaching'

4. There the merchants and gentlemen of the country going on board, to demand those lots
of slaves they had already agreed on (PENN2, Aphra Behn, 1668)

5. There was a whole lot of people behind (OBC, 1790s)

6. I bought a large lot of clothes of the shopman, and took them to the stable (OBC,
1820s)

7. What, there's lots o' room! (Agnes Grey, 1847)

8. A lot of fellows have crotchets (English Constitution 1867)

9. 'But I mean a lot of money - tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?' (The Grand
Babylon Hotel 1902)

10. And she had her dignity too--and a lot of it (CLMETEV 3, The Old Wives' Tale, 1908)

11. A name, yes, and lots of triumphal processions (CLMETEV 3, The Christian, 1897)

12. It'll save us a lot of thinking! (CLMETEV 3, The Prisoner of Zenda, 1894)

13. A lot of pensioners now want an inside lavvy (2001)

14. Quite a lot of earthquakes are shallow (2004)

15. I used to fetch three lots of milk and I had sixpence a week (2004)

16. Yes I made alotta mistakes in my life but life didn't cum with instructions (Twitter 2012)

17. SoHo was a lot different then (2012)

Try to apply the criteria for (degrees of) grammaticalization

Try to group together examples that have the same meaning

The examples represent the typical use of ‘lot’ in the various stages of English

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