Re: What's a gender?

JR skrev:
 > on 12/22/06 3:14 AM, Remi Villatel at
 > maxilys@TELE2.FR wrote:
 >
 >> On Thursday 21 December 2006 20:50, Eldin Raigmore wrote:
 >>
 >>> @Mark: I forgot to mention that "genders" are
 >>> _obligatory_. That is, they are concordial noun-classes
 >>> such that every noun is in one and only one of them, and
 >>> can't change.
 >> I answer even if this wasn't addressed to me 'cause I
 >> liked this part.
 >>
 >> My first reaction when I read this: "Hooray! I broke
 >> another universal!" ;-)
 >
 > I don't think this is a universal. There are a number of
 > nouns in Hebrew of varying gender, e.g., derekh 'way',
 > ruakh 'wind, spirit', maHane 'camp', shemesh 'sun'.

One of the thing Dyirbal is somewhat famous for is that the
words for living beings change gender when the referent is
dead, or rather dead bodies of formerly living beings are
designated by the same words, but these then belong to
another agreement group. The details are probably more
comlicated, but this is the general idea.

I've stolen this in the Sohloçan languages inasmuchas dead
words for living beings behave syntactically as inanimates
when they refer to a dead body.

In Swedish _öl_ 'beer' as a mass noun is neuter gender, but
in the meaning 'a glass of beer' it is common gender, even
though _glas_ 'glass' is neuter. (Is it the same in
Norwegian -- Taliesin, Lars, Arnt?)

I think such a systematic variation in gender, which
involves change in meaning should be distinguished from mere
vacillation in gender. The latter occurs in many languages.
--

/BP 8^)
--
Benct Philip Jonsson
mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If a language is a dialect with an army and a navy,
of what language, pray, is Basque a dialect?" (R.A.B.)

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