On old English nouns of more than one gender

Kitson, Peter

doi:10.1080/00138389008598689

Cited by 31 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Other evidence for a less-than-strong system is the existence of nouns that could be declined according to two or all three genders. Furthermore, as Kitson (1990) suggests, still other evidence exists that gender was a variable that distinguished various dialects of Old English for nouns that referred to topological features. Finally, a major impetus toward the breakdown of the grammatical gender system of Old English was early evidence of rampant variability in the gender of anaphoric pronouns when referring to animate antecedents of either sex.…”

Section: The Story Of Gender In English Nounsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Proof is in the Pronoun: Grammatical and Semantic Gender in Anglo Saxon

Ryan¹

2017

AJP

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Section: The Story Of Gender In English Nounsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Proof is in the Pronoun: Grammatical and Semantic Gender in Anglo Saxon

Ryan¹

2017

AJP

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“…fell out of use relatively early as a place‐name generic. On its distribution in Anglo‐Saxon charter bounds see Kitson (: 187–9).…”

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confidence: 99%

Words derived from Old Norse inSir Gawain and the Green Knight: An etymological survey

Dance

2018

Trans of the Philol Soc

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“…That said, the indirectness of the relationship between the textual evidence and regional origin should not be overstated. As demonstrated by Kitson (1990Kitson ( , 1993, some lexical variation in localizable charters, for exam-ple expressions for Present Day English (PDE) between, corresponds in a nonrandom way with variation in the literary prose texts. The latter can thus be said to embody a measure of dialect variation, at least as regards lexis.…”

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On two negative concord dialects in early English

Ingham

2006

Lang. Var. Change

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R i c h a r d I n g h a m UCE BirminghamA B S T R A C T Hogg (2004), Levin (1958), andOgura (1999) have shown the existence of dialectal differences as regards Old English (OE) negative contraction. This study reassesses the traditional view that OE showed optional use of negative concord (NC), and finds instead that variation in NC was dialectal, based on an analysis of 260 instances of indefinites in OE (prose) negated clauses. Standard West Saxon (WS) texts systematically accompanied a negated indefinite (NI) with the particle ne. In non-WS texts ne use was systematic with a postverbal negated indefinite but variable with preverbal NIs. A sample of 389 NIs in Middle English (ME) verse texts from around 1300 from selected dialect areas showed a similar dissociation. These two sets of findings lend support to the notion of a persisting dialect split in early English whereby symmetrical NC characterized the South0Southwest area while Midland regions of England had asymmetric NC. West Saxon texts may thus represent a regional vernacular tendency as regards NC, not merely a standardized scribal dialect.Recent research on the syntax of negation (see e.g., Haegeman & Zanuttini, 1996; Rowlett, 1998) distinguishes languages with negative concord, such as Italian or Middle English, from those without negative concord, such as Classical Latin or Modern Standard English. It is of interest to ask where in this typology of negation we should place Old English, where we find seemingly divergent cases, such as (1) and (2), which seem to make a uniform answer to that question problematic:(1) qaet heo nanne aefter hyre ne forlete.Martyrology 210, 27 that she none after her NEG leave-3psg-SUBJUNC 'that she should leave none behind after her'(2) qaet he naefre godes geleafan forlete.Martyrology 34, 5 that he never God's belief give up-3 psg-SUBJUNC 'that he should never give up believing in God' In (1) we have negative concord (henceforth NC) between the negative particle ne and the negated indefinite nanne ('none'), whereas in (2) the negated indefinite naefre is not in an NC relationship. 1 It would appear that in OE a negated indefinite could optionally be supported by a sentential negator. This apparentThe author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments of anonymous referees. All remaining errors and misinterpretations are my own.

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On old English nouns of more than one gender

Cited by 31 publications

References 8 publications

The Proof is in the Pronoun: Grammatical and Semantic Gender in Anglo Saxon

The Proof is in the Pronoun: Grammatical and Semantic Gender in Anglo Saxon

Words derived from Old Norse inSir Gawain and the Green Knight: An etymological survey

On two negative concord dialects in early English

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