Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
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Gender assignment in Old English 10<br />
that this one was about to decline. More convincingly one could <strong>the</strong>n suppose that<br />
a new gender category apparently acquired a new function, that is, difference in<br />
gender corresponded to difference in <strong>the</strong> perspectivisation of nouns: gender variation<br />
underlies <strong>the</strong> primary conceptual parameter of ‘individuality’.<br />
The pervasiveness and <strong>the</strong> consistency of <strong>the</strong> phenomenon raises <strong>the</strong> question<br />
whe<strong>the</strong>r this perspectivisation function might be simply interpreted as <strong>the</strong> outcome<br />
of a re-interpretation process of gender due to <strong>the</strong> decay of <strong>the</strong> Old English<br />
formal system, or whe<strong>the</strong>r it is deeply rooted in <strong>the</strong> grammatical category of gender.<br />
This chapter cannot provide a definitive answer, but a preliminary and tentative<br />
hypo<strong>the</strong>sis can never<strong>the</strong>less be attempted.<br />
Present Day English represents a language with a strict semantic gender system.<br />
However, <strong>the</strong>re are cases where <strong>the</strong> straightforward semantic rules are overridden<br />
by emotive and affective factors (Vachek 196 ), and especially in colloquial usage,<br />
considerable variation is possible: humans may be downgraded by <strong>the</strong> use of it, 20<br />
and inanimates upgraded by <strong>the</strong> use of he or she, only if <strong>the</strong>y are countable and individuated<br />
(cf. 15a–b). In English varieties and dialects gender variation is common,<br />
and <strong>the</strong>re is general agreement that <strong>the</strong> determining feature underlying such fluctuation<br />
is <strong>the</strong> individuality parameter (Siemund 2001; Kortmann & Scheider 200 ):<br />
feminine and masculine pronouns 21 are also used with inanimates if characterised<br />
by <strong>the</strong> feature [+ individuated], but never with mass nouns (cf. 16a).<br />
(15) a. Is he washable? [thus an American female customer at a store refers to a<br />
bedspread (Corbett 1991: 12)]<br />
b. You said <strong>the</strong> black knife, you said. I said <strong>the</strong> sharp one this one he’s fairly<br />
cheap but <strong>the</strong>y use him a lot [BNC KD0]<br />
(16) a. how did <strong>the</strong>y do that [sc. Baking] again? Well, y-you see, you and-,<br />
had – ’twas hearth fires <strong>the</strong>n, th., th-, right down on <strong>the</strong> hearth, you see, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>y had a big round iron with a handle on ‘n, and <strong>the</strong>y used to put he under<br />
<strong>the</strong> fire and he’d get hot; <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>y used to put some – take some fire <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
corner o’<strong>the</strong> fireplace like and put it here where you was going to bake to, and<br />
put this iron on top of it [South West England (Wakelin 1986: 103– )]<br />
b. <strong>the</strong>y heard <strong>the</strong> sneck o <strong>the</strong> door liftin, and <strong>the</strong> door tried but sho would no<br />
open [Orkney speaker (Wales 1996: 138)]<br />
0. Mathiot and Roberts (1979) give examples <strong>from</strong> American English in which humans are<br />
downgraded by <strong>the</strong> use of it: e.g., <strong>the</strong> burglar broke into <strong>the</strong> house. It destroyed our furniture while<br />
stealing.<br />
1. Hockett calls <strong>the</strong> animate gender ‘absorptive’, by which he means that ‘<strong>the</strong>re are routes for a<br />
shift of gender <strong>from</strong> inanimate to animate, but not <strong>the</strong> opposite’ (1966: 62).