Perception, Communication, Desire, and Aspectual Verbs in 18th and 19th Century History Writing: A Diachronic Analysis of Male and Female Writers in the Coruña Corpus of History English Texts

Abstract

[Abstract] The understanding of history began to shift decisively in the eighteenth century and reached full institutional consolidation as an academic discipline in the nineteenth. Against this backdrop, this article explores how four semantic classes of verbs –communication, perception, desire, and aspectual verbs– are distributed and used in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historiographical texts drawn from the History English Texts subcorpus of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. The study pursues two main aims. First, it examines the frequency of these verb classes within historical discourse of the period. Second, it analyses their use from a gender perspective, asking whether male and female authors display comparable or divergent patterns. The findings point to clear asymmetries: male authors employ these verbs more frequently and with greater semantic range, while the patterns observed in women’s writing shed light on their discursive positioning within historiography across the two centuries.

[Resumen] El artículo analiza el uso de cuatro clases semánticas de verbos, comunicación, percepción, deseo y aspectuales, en textos históricos de los siglos xviii y xix del History English Texts del Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. El estudio examina su frecuencia y distribución desde una perspectiva de género, comparando la escritura de autores y autoras. Los resultados revelan diferencias claras en la frecuencia y variedad léxica, con un uso más amplio por parte de los hombres, mientras que el análisis de los textos femeninos aporta claves para entender la posición discursiva de las mujeres en la historiografía del período.