Universal #590
Legacy number: 590
| Number | 587 |
| Original | ... eine höchst bemerkenswerte Erscheinung, die nur in flektierenden Sprachen anzutreffen ist, das ist das grammatische Geschlecht. (Grammatical gender occurs only in flexive languages). |
| Standardized | IF there is grammatical gender, THEN morphology is flexive. |
| Formula | gender inflection ⇒ flexive |
| Keywords | flexion, gender |
| Domain | inflection |
| Type | implication |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | statistical |
| Basis | languages mentioned in Meinhof 1936, primarily Meinhof's "Semiten-" and "Hamitensprachen" in comparison with other lgs of Africa and of Europe |
| Source | Meinhof 1936: 17, 63 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
Dravidian languages
Notes
1. See similar statements by Moravcsik 1994 (#389), Renault 1987b (#589).2. "Flektierende Sprachen" according to Meinhof have four characteristics:(i) inflection, i.e. declension and conjugation;(ii) "Bildungselemente, die keine selbständige Bedeutung mehr haben" (i.e., genuine affixes, rather than function words also retaining content word uses);(iii) "Veränderlichkeit des Wortstammes", especially "innerer Vokalwechsel" (see #1676);(iv) "Mannigfaltigkeit der Pluralbildung" (i.e., plural allomorphy) (see #1673).It is possible, though not mandatory, to read him as claiming that there is an implicational chain among them:(iv) … (iii) … (ii) … (i) That is, his "flektierende Sprachen" are not necessarily "flexive" in the sense of having cumulation, otherwise considered a key property of this morphological type. In actual fact, his prime examples of "flektierende Sprachen" – non-analytic Indo-European, Semitic, "Hamitensprachen" – are. 3. gender = "Anwendung des Genusunterschiedes auf Gegenstände, die mit dem Sexus gar nichts zu tun haben" (p. 63);origin in distinction of person and thing, animate and inanimate, reflected in pronouns, in other agreeing forms, or also in inflection of nouns themselves (p. 64);"Gruppierung" (classification according to "group", i.e., animacy), alongside "Klasseneinteilung" (pp. 62, 67)4. See also ##1959, 1960 for further correlates of "flektierend" suggested by Meinhof.
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2. "Flektierende Sprachen" according to Meinhof have four characteristics:
(i) inflection, i.e. declension and conjugation;
(ii) "Bildungselemente, die keine selbständige Bedeutung mehr haben" (i.e., genuine affixes, rather than function words also retaining content word uses);
(iii) "Veränderlichkeit des Wortstammes", especially "innerer Vokalwechsel" (see <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1676"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">);
(iv) "Mannigfaltigkeit der Pluralbildung" (i.e., plural allomorphy) (see <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1673"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">). It is possible, though not mandatory, to read him as claiming that there is an implicational chain among them:
(iv) ⊃ (iii) ⊃ (ii) ⊃ (i)
That is, his "flektierende Sprachen" are not necessarily "flexive" in the sense of having cumulation, otherwise considered a key property of this morphological type. In actual fact, his prime examples of "flektierende Sprachen" – non-analytic Indo-European, Semitic, "Hamitensprachen" – are.
3. gender = "Anwendung des Genusunterschiedes auf Gegenstände, die mit dem Sexus gar nichts zu tun haben" (p. 63); origin in distinction of person and thing, animate and inanimate, reflected in pronouns, in other agreeing forms, or also in inflection of nouns themselves (p. 64); "Gruppierung" (classification according to "group", i.e., animacy), alongside "Klasseneinteilung" (pp. 62, 67)
4. See also <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1959"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1960"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> for further correlates of "flektierend" suggested by Meinhof.