Semantic change of female-denoting nouns in diachronic German corpora
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Computational studies of language change using word embedding models have focused on lexical semantic shifts. Current work in Natural Language Processing has revealed gender bias in word embeddings trained on internet data. However, little is known about what distributional methods can reveal about possible gender bias in diachronic corpora. This paper addresses this gap by examining gender-specific nouns denoting humans, e.g. Magd ‘maidservant’, Knecht ‘farmhand’ in a historical corpus of German (1350-1899). We show that word embedding models provide evidence for gender bias and negative evaluations associated with female-denoting terms in diachronic German corpora.
Authors: Carla Sökefeld, Patrícia Amaral
Institutions: Universität Hamburg, Indiana University
Language: English
Topic: Gender Studies in Language
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409774698