Gender shifts in the history of English

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.