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A little old lady came out very quietly … […]. (Collins Cobuild, 1987, p. 850) The only examples given concerning children seem to refer to their small size only, the difference from ‘small’ being not only the greater informality of the word ‘little’, but also the attitude of the writer towards the subject, something that ‘small’ does not seem to convey. 271). The adjective ‘small’ never occurs as a collocate of ‘girl’ in this corpus, at least among the statistically most significant items. Let us now look at how these expectations are met in the texts, and how the concept of ‘littleness’ and its implications seem to have developed.

The Merseyside version is the text which gives a fuller image of the woman, activating her in relation to a variety of activities (she goes to be trained in the city, laughs, worries). Moreover, the Merseyside version is the only case of overdetermination, since the character is connected to at least two social activities, mothering and work, and the latter corresponds to a rather ‘unfeminine’ activity (she works in a timber mill together with her husband). 40 Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition The grandmother Most of the things I have said regarding the girl’s mother also hold good for grandmother, always included except for the oral version, and Thurber and Chiang Mi, where she is backgrounded.

At the crossway she met bzou. (in Zipes, p. 5) (b) ‘The path of needles’, the little girl said. (in Zipes, p. 5) (c) The little girl entertained herself by gathering needles. (in Zipes, p. 5) (d) The little girl arrived and knocked on the door. (in Zipes, p. ’ (in Zipes, p. 6) (f ) When the little girl was outside, she tied an end of the rope to a plum tree in the courtyard. (in Zipes, p. 6) 20 Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition (g) When he realized that nobody was answering him, he jumped out of bed and saw that the little girl had escaped.