Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, also called noun classes, are classes of nouns requiring different agreement forms on determiners, adjectives, verbs or other words. For instance, cf. Spanish un hombre alto ("a tall man") vs una mujer alta ("a tall woman"), in which both the determiner (un / una) and the adjective ( alto / alta) reflect the gender of the noun.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In a similar vein, the Swahili class marker ki- (marking singular nouns in class number 7) shows up on both the adjective (-kubwa) and the verb (-anguka), to express their relation to the class seven noun kitabu 'book':

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

kitabu kikubwa kinaanguka

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(7.book 7.big 7.PRESENT-fall)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

'The big book falls.'

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some languages have no classes, and treat all nouns in the same way grammatically.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The number of classes varies from two (Masculine and Feminine, as in Spanish or French), three (Masculine, Feminine, Neuter, as in German or Latin), four to eight (as in many Caucasian languages), to as many as twenty or more (as in the Bantu languages and languages of West Africa, such as Fula).

Related Topics:
Caucasian languages - Bantu languages - Fula

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In languages having gender, every noun must belong to one of the classes. Sometimes, we find nouns that can belong to two or more classes. For example , in the Caucasian language Archi the noun lo ("child") can take Masculine gender when it refers to a young boy, Feminine gender to denote a girl, and Neuter gender (normally used for inanimates), when the sex of child is unknown or irrelevant (Corbett 1994).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Common criteria for distinguishing noun classes include:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• animate vs. inanimate (as with Ojibwe)
• rational vs. non-rational (as with Tamil)
• human vs. non-human
• male vs. other
• male human vs. other
• masculine vs. feminine (as with French and other Romance languages)
• masculine vs. feminine vs. neuter (as with Latin, German, or Slavic languages)
• strong vs. weak
• augmentative vs. diminutive

In general, the boundaries of noun classes are rather arbitrary, although there are rules of thumb in many languages. The Algonquian languages have animate and inanimate noun classes, for example, and most Indo-European languages distinguish feminine, masculine and sometimes neuter noun classes. In many other languages, however, masculine and feminine are subsumed in the category of person, either generally, or only in the plural, as in the North Caucasian languages and some Dravidian languages.

Related Topics:
Algonquian languages - North Caucasian languages - Dravidian languages

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 
Grammatical gender: Algonquian languages ►