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University of Freiburg

Gender in English pronouns : myth and reality

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This study deals with a feature of traditional English dialects in Southwest England and Newfoundland, namely the use of "gendered" pronouns (primarily he and him) to refer to inanimate objects such as a tree or a watch: "I can't climb him" or "He's a good watch". <br> Background analyses include an overview of the history of gender in English as well as sketches of the investigated dialects. The core of the study contains detailed analyses of material from the Survey of English Dialects (both the Basic and the Incidental Material) as well as examples of use and changes in use from various corpora of spoken language (parts of the Freiburg English Dialect Corpus for Southwest England, material from the MUNFLA archives for Newfoundland).

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Wagner, Susanne
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Kortmann, Bernd

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record source_url
https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/1412
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:freidok.uni-freiburg.de:1412

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Freiburg
Base URL
freidok.uni-freiburg.de/oai/oai2.php
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Wagner, Susanne. Gender in English pronouns : myth and reality. https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/1412