Gender and noun class

[Gilbert Lazard]

If it is true, as I believe, that cross-linguistic categories  do not exist, the problem of how to name  them has no satisfactory solution. The only important point is the distinction between the categories of individual languages and the inevitably vague "cross-linguistic" categories. The best way for marking that distinction is to use a capital in the names of individual language categories, as proposed by Comrie in 1979, according to William Croft. May I recall that I also used the same device in an article in French , "La catégorie de l'éventuel", in Mélanges E. Benveniste, Paris, Société de linguistique, 1975.


Gilbert Lazard,
49, av. de l'Observatoire,
F-75014 Paris

gilzard at orange.fr



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