Universal #247

Legacy number: 247

 Number  247
 Original  The presence of the category of gender is connected with the development of the morphological opposition of nominative/accusative. In those systems where the special form of accusative is attested, the category of gender exists.
 Standardized  IF there is an accusative case distinct from the nominative, THEN there is a category of gender.
 Formula  Acc ⇒ Gender
 Keywords  gender, case, accusative, nominative
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  Afro-Asiatic, Indo-European, Kartvel families
 Source  Palmaitis 1978: 27-38

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Discussion
Counterexamples
almost all Uralic and Altaic languages (Irina Nikolaeva, p.c.)
Notes
Is this universal about languages or about particular words or word forms? For example: In German, plural NPs never distinguish an acc from a nom, nor is there a gender contrast. Same for feminine and neuter singular. In masc sg, there is a distinct acc, and genders contrast. Thus, the language as such is in line with the universal, and so are all its word forms. But this need not necessarily be the case.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Is this universal about languages or about particular words or word forms? For example: In German, plural NPs never distinguish an acc from a nom, nor is there a gender contrast. Same for feminine and neuter singular. In masc sg, there is a distinct acc, and genders contrast. Thus, the language as such is in line with the universal, and so are all its word forms. But this need not necessarily be the case.