Gender Shifts in the History of English

Anne Curzan is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan. She has written extensively on the history of English, lexicography, and pedagogy, and is co-author of First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching (2000). Professor Curzan is also co-editor of the Journal of English Linguistics.

'This book is clearly written and accessible to undergraduates in a variety of disciplines, not just in the field of linguistics. It would also be of interest to those in the area of gender studies and mediaeval history. Each of the main analytical chapters opens with a contemporary question which contextualises the relevance of the study within Modern English footnoting elaborates points made throughout.' Journal of Sociolinguistics

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Defining English gender; 2. The gender shift in histories of English; 3. A history of gender, people and pronouns: the story of generic he; 4. Third-person pronouns in the gender shift: why is that ship a she?; 5. Gender and asymmetrical word histories: when boys could be girls; 6. Implications for non-sexist language reform; Appendix 1. Background on early English personal pronouns; Appendix 2. Helsinki corpus texts and methodology; References; Index.