Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 452Murray, R.W. and T.Vennemann. 1983. Sound change and syllable structure in Germanicphonology. Lg 59. 514–28.phonetics, sound changegender [Lat. genus ‘kind, class’] (alsogrammatical gender)Lexical-grammatical category, which in most languages of the world divides the nominallexicon into formally and/or semantically motivated groups, the number of classesvarying just as the kind of criteria for the division (Royen 1929; Corbett 1992). However,gender systems in the narrower sense are only those classifications which exhibit alimited number of closed classes (as a rule weak semantic transparency) as well asagreement. This definitorial demarcation of gender from classifying languages (whichorder nouns according to purely semantic qualities such as plant, animal, edible etc., cf.Mandarin Chinese) is based on the syntactic characteristic of the formal agreement of allelements in a noun group with the core noun; in German agreement exists with regard tothe three categories gender, number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, genitive,dative, accusative), cf. the noun group in In den meisten indogermanischen, semitischenund afrikanischen Sprachen, ‘In most Indo-European, Semitic and African languages’.The morphological characterization creates cohesion over complex structures and therebymakes possible—for stylistic purposes—a freer word order than is possible in languageswithout gender and agreement, such as English.With regard to the principles of the classification, a distinction is made between (a)semantic systems (such as, e.g., Tamil, Zande, Dyirbal and some Caucasian languages,(b) formal systems, which are to be found in morphological respect in Russian, Swahiliand other Bantu languages, and (c) phonologically predictable systems such as French.Eighty-five per cent of the nouns in the approx. 200 languages studied by Corbett (1992)can be attributed to a specific class through formal criteria; in case of doubt semanticaspects are decisive.In the course of its history, English has lost all morphological signs of the originalthree-class gender system through the loss of final syllables, but ‘covert’ gender(semantic gender) is to be found in the selection of anaphorical pronouns, and thisselection in return is mainly motivated by gender-related analogies (natural gender), cf.the common differentiation between natural gender (mother—she), social gender (lorrydriver—he,nurse—she), and psychological gender (the baby—it; the ship—she). Incontrast to German, personal designations are usually gender-neutral (teacher, student,lawyer); a general derivational suffix comparable to German -in is also lacking (-ess isless generally applicable and in many cases already has a pejorative connotation ascompared to its male counterpart, cf. mister/ mistress, governor/governess). Where sexualspecification is necessary, this takes place through adjectival (female/male citizen) ornominal (woman writer) modification (Baron 1986). On the connection between genderand sex under language-political aspects cf. feminist linguistics.