Unhistorical Gender Assignment in Layamon's Brut

This book explains how and why grammatical gender disappeared from English through a detailed analysis of unhistorical gender assignment within the noun phrase in Layamon's Brut, one of the most important Early Middle English texts. Such deviations do occur capriciously but not randomly, suggesting a development of innovative functions of the attributive forms concerned.
These innovations are mainly of two types: gender-insensitive uses as a case marker and a shift from a bipartite to tripartite system of defining words, the, that, and this. The author discusses these innovations, focusing on their implications for the subsequent development and eventual loss of grammatical gender.

Auteur

Seiji Shinkawa is a professor of English at Hakuoh University. He received his MA and PhD in English Philology from Sophia University. His research interests center on the history of the English language, particularly Old English and Early Middle English. His recent publications include articles in the periodical English Studies and a collection of papers published in this series.

Contenu

Contents: Historical and unhistorical gender forms of demonstratives and adjectives - Innovative attributive morphology as a case marker - The development of a tripartite system of defining words, the, that, and this - Implications for the grammatical category of gender.