Gender change from Old to Middle English

Florian Dolberg | Universität Hamburg

Gender-assignment and -exponence changed dramatically from Old to Middle English.1 This paper provides insights on the mechanisms and chronology of this change by quantitatively analysing the annals 1129–1154 of the Peterborough Chronicle. A logistic regression reveals substantial effects of formal, semantic and extralinguistic parameters on gender reassignment. Lexical-to-referentialgender transition is largely a directed development in which correspondence of sex and gender plays a major role. At the same time, instances of random gender-reassignment occur and produce gendered noun-phrases incompatible with both the Old English (OE) as well as the Middle English (ME) system of gender-assignment. Pronouns adopt referential agreement before adnominals as a diachronic application of the Agreement Hierarchy (Corbett 1979) predicts.

Published online: 13 November 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.325.12dol

Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

No author info given

2019. In Agreement in Language Contact [Studies in Language Companion Series, 208],

Colman, Fran

2015. First, Catch Your Name … On Names and Word Classes, Especially in Old English. English Studies 96:3 ► pp. 310 ff.

Colman, Fran

2018. In Substance-based Grammar – The (Ongoing) Work of John Anderson [Studies in Language Companion Series, 204], ► pp. 225 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.