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Article: Noun phrase internal gender agreement in late old English and early Middle English.
- Article from:
- Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
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ABSTRACT
The focus of the current paper is on the phenomenon of noun phrase internal gender agreement, as observed in the 12th century manuscript E of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, namely the Peterborough Chronicle (Bodleian MS. Laud Misc. 636). The language used by the scribes of the Chronicle is often held to be a "microcosm" (Jones 1988) of extremely powerful innovations characterising the transition from Old English to Middle English.
The mechanisms of intra-noun-phrase gender agreement operating in "classical" West Saxon Schriftsprache are usually described as strictly formal in nature. The earliest occurrences departing from the formally determined ...