Article outline

• 3.1Nature, origin and function of gender
• 3.2Gender in Old and Middle English
  • 3.2.1Gender assignment
    • 3.2.1.1Nouns with more than one gender
  • 3.2.2Gender exponence
• 3.3Approaches to English gender development
  • 3.3.1The ‘Genuswechsel’ theory
  • 3.3.2Formal sources of gender development
  • 3.3.3Functional and semantic sources of gender development
  • 3.3.4Language contact, language change and gender development
• 3.4Chapter summary
• Notes