True meaning of morphosyntacitc categories

[Tanya Christensen]

Dear Funknetters,
usually just a silent but interested reader in the linguistic debates of this
forum, I now ask for your help. More specifically I would appreciate any
references on investigations into the meaning/functional content of
morphosyntactic categories, such as tense, case, number, gender, etc. I find
plenty of material on syntactic categories and the like, but precious little on
the ’real’ meaning of case and others. Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev
contributed greatly to this field of study, but I would very much like to know
if you are familiar with any other theories/investigations/approaches...

The question within this line of thought, is whether the established terms for
morphosyntactic categories are truly appropriate for the ’job’ they do: the
most obvious question seems to be whether the different genera really have to
do with different genders, biological or cultural, as the terms ’masculine’ and
’feminine’ would suggest; and if not, what _do_ they mean? But also the term
’plural’ in the category of number is misleading: are there really more than
one item when we talk of _trousers_, _scissors_, _glasses_ ? And even more
complex, I would say, what about mood and case?

I will of course post a list of references to anyone interested.

Eagerly awaiting your replies,

Tanya Christensen,
graduate student,
Copenhagen, Denmark