1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910825955403321

Autore

Curzan Anne

Titolo

Gender shifts in the history of English / / Anne Curzan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, U.K. ; ; New York, : Cambridge University Press, 2003

ISBN

1-107-13610-5

1-280-43072-9

1-139-14884-2

0-511-17854-9

0-511-06168-4

0-511-05535-8

0-511-30576-1

0-511-48691-X

0-511-07014-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 223 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Studies in English language

Disciplina

425

Soggetti

English language - Gender

English language - Grammar, Historical

Linguistic change

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-217) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Defining English gender -- The gender shift in histories of English -- A history of gender, people, and pronouns: the story of generic he -- Third-person pronouns in the gender shift: why is that ship a she? -- Gender and asymmetrical word histories: when boys could be girls -- Implications for non-sexist language reform.

Sommario/riassunto

How and why did grammatical gender, found in Old English and in other Germanic languages, gradually disappear from English and get replaced by a system where the gender of nouns and the use of personal pronouns depend on the natural gender of the referent? How is this shift related to 'irregular agreement' (such as she for ships) and 'sexist' language use (such as generic he) in Modern English, and how is the language continuing to evolve in these respects? Anne Curzan's accessibly written and carefully researched study is based on extensive



corpus data, and will make a major contribution by providing a historical perspective on these often controversial questions. It will be of interest to researchers and students in history of English, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, language and gender, and medieval studies.