This paper presents the theoretical backgr ound of a large-scale lexicological research project on lexical variation that was carried out at the university of Leuven in the last three years. The project is situated in the framework of Cognitive Semantics in the sense of Lakoff (1987), Langacker (1990), Geeraerts (1989b), and Taylor (1989); it links up with the explorations of the relevance of p...