Gender and Noun Class

[Mark Van de Velde]

Dear all,
It seems to me that one of the underlying problems raised in Don’s
question is that of the tension between typological generalisation versus
the analysis of individual languages. My preferred solution is the one
outlined in Martin Haspelmath’s discussion note in Language (2010, vol 86,
nr 3, pp 663-687) “Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in
crosslinguistic studies”, viz. to make it very clear that the term you use
is the (proper) name of a particular phenomenon in a particular language,
e.g. by capitalising it. The choice between the terms *Gender* and *Noun
class* is of little importance, then. Both will make clear what
crosslinguistic phenomenon the Uduk feature can be compared to.
Mark



> Dear all,
>
> I have read quite a number of books and articles by this point on this
> subject, but despite everything I haven't been able to come to a
> conclusion on something, so I thought to ask the list for suggestions
> (particularly since some of the authors on the subject are on this list!).
>
> The difference between gender and noun classes seems to be mostly
> tradition rather than actual linguistic differentiations (perhaps noun
> classes are generally viewed to have more categories, but even that
> isn't absolute), and I've run into a terminology problem with a current
> grammatical description I'm working on... mainly on what might be a more
> neutral term incorporating both of these ideas.
>
> Uduk differentiates all nouns into two categories which are for the most
> part arbitrary, both phonologically and semantically (in contrast to
> Corbett's comment: "When we analyse assignment systems of languages from
> different families we find that genders always have a semantic core.")
>
> As Uduk is NOT using semantics as the main criteria for differentiation
> (at least not synchronically), I would like to use a more neutral term
> than gender or noun class to refer to these categories. Each time I have
> used gender or noun class, a number of readers have associated
> biological gender/animacy with the first or Bantu-style noun class
> systems with the second, and it can often end up detracting from my
> focus.  I'd rather avoid any sort of general debate on what a noun
> class/gender system actually is, and instead focus on the actual
> grammatical system of Uduk.
>
> Hence my question to the list.. IS there a more neutral term than noun
> class or gender to refer to grammatical categories of nouns in a
> language?  Agreement class isn't quite adequate because it also doesn't
> necessarily refer to this being a nominal property (and noun agreement
> class is too cumbersome of a term). Nominal category is awkward,
> although possible.
>
> I'm open to further suggestions people have.
>
> Best,
>
> Don
>
>
> --
> Don Killian
> Researcher in African Linguistics
> Department of Modern Languages
> PL 24 (Unioninkatu 40)
> FI-00014 University of Helsinki
> +358 (0)44 5016437
>