Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

.1 First type of gender deviance: nature over grammar
Gender assignment in Old English 9
The (a) type of deviance concerns the predominance of the natural gender of the
referent over grammatical gender. This phenomenon can take place both within
the NP, where variable gender words such as determiners and adjectives agree
with the natural gender of the referent of the head noun – e.g., (2a–b) – and outside
the NP, where the choice of the pronominal elements depends on the meaning
of the antecedent both in the case of anaphoric reference – e.g., (3a–b) – and relative
pronoun – e.g., (3c). This happens quite frequently when grammatical gender
and semantic gender conflict. Consequently it is not surprising that such deviance
mainly concerns words with animate and human referents, and less frequently
nouns referring to inanimate entities.
(2) a. [Judg .21] seo (f.) wifman (m)
“the woman”
b. [Cd. 32 Gen. 691] He hogode on ðæt (n.) micle morþ (m.) me forweorpan,
forlætan and forlædan.
“He (the devil) intended to throw me in the great death, to abandon
and seduce”
(3) a. [ÆCHom i.1 .21] geworhte of ðam ribbe ænne (m.acc.) wifman (m.) and
axode Adam hu heo (f.) hatan sceolde
“[he] created from the rib a woman and asked Adam how to call her”
b. [ÆCHom i. 20.31] Wyrc þe nu ænne arc … gehref hit eall
“Prepare now an arc … roof it all”
c. [ÆCHom I.2 .22.] to anum mædene (n.) … seo (f.) wæs Maria gehaten
“to one virgin … whose name was Maria”
As for anaphoric reference, the frequency of semantic gender assignment is
directly proportional to the distance between the antecedent and the pronominal
element: in ( a) wisdom is modified by an accusative masculine determiner and in
its immediate sentence it is referred to by means of hiene, i.e., accusative masculine
pronoun, as one would expect since it is a masculine singular; in the following
sentence, where the personal pronoun is quite separated from its antecedent, the
word wisdom is referred to by means of hit, namely a pronoun that agrees with
the natural gender of the referent [– animate]; in ( b), whereas inside the NP the
determiner agrees with the grammatical gender of its head, the referring pronoun
agrees with the natural gender of the referent of wif.
( ) a. [CP 3.2 ] þæt ðu þone wisdom ðe ðe God sealde ðær ðær ðu hiene
befæstan mæge befæste. Geðenc hwelc witu us ða becomon for ðisse worulde,
ða ða we hit nohwæðer ne selfe ne lufodon ne eac oþrum monnum ne lefdon …
“that wisdom which God gave to you where you may implant it there
implant it. Think what punishment would come to us for this world if we
did not love it nor allowed others to do so”