Gender [Lat. Genus ‘Kind, Class’]

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Lexical-grammatical category, which in most languages of the world divides the nominal lexicon into formally and/or semantically motivated groups, the number of classes varying 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 a limited number of closed classes (as a rule weak semantic transparency) as well as agreement. This definitorial demarcation of gender from classifying languages (which order 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 all elements in a noun group with the core noun; in German agreement exists with regard to the three categories gender, number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative), cf. the noun group in In den meisten indogermanischen, semitischen und afrikanischen Sprachen, ‘In most Indo-European, Semitic and African languages’. The morphological characterization creates cohesion over complex structures and thereby makes possible—for stylistic purposes—a freer word order than is possible in languages without 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, Swahili and 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 semantic aspects are decisive.

In the course of its history, English has lost all morphological signs of the original three-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 this selection in return is mainly motivated by gender-related analogies (natural gender), cf. the common differentiation between natural gender (mother—she), social gender (lorry-driver—he, nurse—she), and psychological gender (the baby—it; the ship—she). In contrast to German, personal designations are usually gender-neutral (teacher, student, lawyer); a general derivational suffix comparable to German -in is also lacking (-ess is less generally applicable and in many cases already has a pejorative connotation as compared to its male counterpart, cf. mister/ mistress, governor/governess). Where sexual specification is necessary, this takes place through adjectival (female/male citizen) or nominal (woman writer) modification (Baron 1986). On the connection between gender and sex under language-political aspects cf. feminist linguistics.

Baron, D. 1986. Grammar and gender. New Haven.

Brugmann, K. 1897. The nature and origin of the noun genders in the Indo-European languages. A lecture delivered on the occasion of the sesquicentennial celebration of Princeton University. New Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 9. 100–9.

Bussmann, H. 1995. DAS Genus, DIE Grammatik und—DER Mensch: Geschlechterdifferenz in der Sprachwissenschaft.

In H.Bussmann and R.Hof (eds), Genus. Zur Geschlechterdifferenz iu den Kulturwissenschaften. Stuttgart. 114–60.

Corbett, G.G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge.

Fodor, I. 1959. The origin of grammatical gender. Lingua 8. 1–41, 186–214.

Greenberg, J.H. 1978. How does a language acquire gender markers? In Universals of human language, III: Word structure. Stanford. 47–82.

Ibrahim, I.M. 1973. Grammatical gender. Its origin and development. The Hague.

Jespersen, O. 1922. Language. Its nature, development and origin. New York.

Jones, C. 1988. Grammatical gender in English. London. 950–1250.

Köpke, K.-M. 1982. Zum Genussystem der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Tübingen.

Royen, G. 1929. Die nominalen Klassifikationssysteme in den Sprachen der Erde. Historischkritische Studie, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Indogermanischen. Wien.

agreement, feminist linguistics, government, noun class

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