Assigned gender in a corpus of nineteenth-century correspondence among settlers in the American Great Plains
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Trinidad Guzmán-González
Abstract
This contribution explores the use of the formal resources of English (third-person singular pronouns in anaphora, sex-sensitive collocations) for “assigned gender” in a corpus of letters written by settlers of the Great Plains of the United States in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The textual work is introduced by a discussion of significant theoretical aspects of the grammatical category of gender and of certain methodological issues – particularly “Units of Anaphoric Reference”. Although assigned gender has been approached from a general perspective, particular attention has been paid to two specific usages: the feminine pronoun as an indicator of colloquial American English, and the neuter pronoun as a frequent (and possibly patterned) choice for nouns like baby or child.
Abstract
This contribution explores the use of the formal resources of English (third-person singular pronouns in anaphora, sex-sensitive collocations) for “assigned gender” in a corpus of letters written by settlers of the Great Plains of the United States in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The textual work is introduced by a discussion of significant theoretical aspects of the grammatical category of gender and of certain methodological issues – particularly “Units of Anaphoric Reference”. Although assigned gender has been approached from a general perspective, particular attention has been paid to two specific usages: the feminine pronoun as an indicator of colloquial American English, and the neuter pronoun as a frequent (and possibly patterned) choice for nouns like baby or child.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Studying real-time change in the adverbial subjunctive 13
- Political perspectives on linguistic innovation in independent America 37
- Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected 55
- Transatlantic perspectives on late nineteenth-century English usage 73
- “Provincial in England, but in common use with us” 99
- “Across the ocean ferry” 117
- Legitimising linguistic devices in A Cheering Voice from Upper Canada (1834) 135
- Nineteenth-century institutional (im)politeness 153
- ‘[B]ut sure its only a penny after all’ 179
- Assigned gender in a corpus of nineteenth-century correspondence among settlers in the American Great Plains 199
- Index 219
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Studying real-time change in the adverbial subjunctive 13
- Political perspectives on linguistic innovation in independent America 37
- Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected 55
- Transatlantic perspectives on late nineteenth-century English usage 73
- “Provincial in England, but in common use with us” 99
- “Across the ocean ferry” 117
- Legitimising linguistic devices in A Cheering Voice from Upper Canada (1834) 135
- Nineteenth-century institutional (im)politeness 153
- ‘[B]ut sure its only a penny after all’ 179
- Assigned gender in a corpus of nineteenth-century correspondence among settlers in the American Great Plains 199
- Index 219
