Re: Gender as suffixaufnahme?

The gender of a noun is, by definition, inherent and invariable with
whatever referents and antecedents it might have -- it isn't part of
its grammatical function within an utterance but a classification
label that determines what declension rules it follows and the
agreement that must come with it.

For example, "la vie" (the life, f.) doesn't become "le vie du garçon"
(the life of the boy, m.).

Eugene

2007/2/22, Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>:
> Hi
>
> Does anyone know of a language that includes gender affixes in
> suffixaufnahme?
>
> To clarify:
>
> Suffixaufnahme: Imagine a language with the two nouns "cat" and "fur". A
> noun in the ergative case takes the ergative suffix: cates (CAT-(e)-erg) and
> noun in the genitive case takes both genitive suffix AND a case suffix to
> agree with its head noun - "catens fures" CAT-(e)-gen-erg FUR-(e)-erg): "The
> fur (agent) of the cat".
>
> Now, imagine a language which in addition to case suffixes, has gender
> suffixes. In this language, "gat-a" (CAT-fem) means "she-cat", and "gat-a-n"
> (CAT-fem-gen) is the genitive case of "gata". Similarly, "furr-o" (FUR-masc)
> means "fur" and "furr-o-s" (FUR-masc-erg) is the genitive of "furro".
> However, when the genitive depends on another noun, the genitive takes (a) a
> genitive suffix (b) the gender and case of the head noun: furr-o-s
> gata-n-o-s (FUR-masc-erg CAT-fem-gen-masc-erg) "The fur (agent) of the cat".
>
> Is this possible?
>
> Thanks.
>

Replies