Women's Language

An Analysis of Style and Expression in Letters Before 1800

Eva Haettner Aurelius, Hedda Gunneng, Jon Helgason, Eva Haettner Aurelius, Hedda Gunneng, Jon Helgason

• Publisher: Nordic Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9789187121883
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Literature

By linguistic close-reading of more than a thousand letters from the 12th through the 18th centuries - written in Latin, Swedish, French, German, and English - this compilation analyzes the differences in language and communication between women and men. Armed with an exhaustive stylistic analysis, this volume attempts to answer the question Is there a special niche reserved for women's language? As it pinpoints the variations in how women expressed themselves when addressing men or other women, 'this detailed investigation of style and expression comes to the conclusion that there is no evidence for a particular female language; however, this authoritative work is a joy to follow for anyone interested in language, linguistics, stylistic analysis, and gender.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Theoretical foundation
• 2. Linguistic stylistics—methodological considerations
• 3. Medieval letters in Latin
• 4. Swedish letters c.1700–1740 and c.1740–1800
• 5. Letters in French in the eighteenth century
• 6. English letters from the long eighteenth century
• 7. German letters in the eighteenth century
• 8. Project summary and conclusions
• Appendix 1 Tables and diagrams
• Appendix 2 Statistical analysis and hypothesis testing and statistical result tables
• Appendix 3 Register of letters
• About the Authors