Linguistic Representations of Women in Old English Prose - A Corpus-Based Phraseological Study

This Element traces the origins and earliest manifestations of gender bias in the English language. The analysis is based on a corpus of Old English prose texts, written between the ninth and the eleventh centuries. The results are interpreted in the historical, cultural and literary context of Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Europe. The investigation shows a significant difference in the way women and men are presented in Old English texts, with the former clearly associated with family life, portrayed in the context of their physical appearance, marriage and childbearing, rarely involved in meaningful activities and presented as possessions of their male relatives. Situating the linguistic representations of women in the context of Christianity, the Element demonstrates that late Old English can be seen as a vehicle of language bias that will establish male domination for centuries to come. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Old English written records and linguistic insights into Anglo-Saxon culture; 2. Language and gender; 3. Collocations on the level of the noun phrase; 4. Collocations on the level of the verb phrase; Conclusions; References.

Product details

• Authors: Cichosz Anna, Tomasz Dobrogoszcz
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 28.02.2026
• EAN: 9781009625760
• ISBN: 978-1-009-62576-0
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Elements in Language, Gender and Sexuality
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General, Sociolinguistics, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Computational Linguistics, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Anglo-Saxon / Old English, Anglo-Saxon, Computational and corpus linguistics