Das grammatische Raritätenkabinett
A catalogue of rare and unusual grammatical phenomena documented across the world’s languages. 147 published entries.
12 entries
| # | Phenomenon | Found in | Domain | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | a divine gender (for nouns for gods, saints, comets, and other supernatural referents), contrasting with masculine, feminine, animal, and inanimate genders | Jicaltepec Mixtec (Oto-Manguean) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | gender, noun |
| 53 | gender contrast of nouns, but not of pronouns (except interrogative ones, in Teop) | Turkana (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan); Teop (Bougainville, Oceanic, Austronesian) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | noun, pronoun |
| 54 | gender contrast (MASC/FEM) in personal pronouns for 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes also 1st plural and for 2nd singular but not for 1st and 3rd singular, in some pronominal paradigms | Tàhàggart, Tuareg, Kabyle, Proto-Berber (?!) (Berber, Afroasiatic) [a family trait: limited to Berber but not shared by all members] | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, person, number |
| 55 | gender contrast in personal pronouns exclusively in 1st person singular | Tocharian A (IE); Thai (Daic, Austroasiatic) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, 1st person |
| 56 | gender contrast (MASC/FEM) in personal pronouns exclusively in 1st person plural, both inclusive and exclusive | Shirumba (Heiban, Kordofanian) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, inclusive, exclusive |
| 57 | a mixed (aka "common", "resolution", "indefinite") gender in 3rd person (probably also 2nd and 1st person) non-singular pronouns for reference to mixed sets of antecedents, which naturally is without a singular counterpart | all Central Khoisan lgs, and widespread also elsewhere in Khoisan; Vanimo (Sko, "Papuan"); Bukiyip (Torricelli, "Papuan"); probably also elsewhere in "Papuan"; probably Khasi (Mon-Khmer); probably Turkana (Nilo-Saharan); probably Chinook (Chinookan) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | mixed gender, number |
| 58 | contrast in pronouns for 2nd and 3rd person for sex of the referent and also of the speaker | Diuxi Mixtec (Oto-Manguean) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun |
| 59 | contrast in pronouns for 3rd person for number (SG/PL), gender (both of the referent and of the speaker), kin relationship between speaker and referent (and if affine, then also whether in ascending or descending generation), and ethnic identity (Yuchi vs. other) | Yuchi (isolate, east central Oklahoma, USA) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, number, kinship |
| 60 | contrast in personal pronouns for moyety, kin class, and generation level membership | Adnyamadhanha and other Australian lgs | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, moyety, kinship |
| 61 | choice of 3rd person personal pronoun determined by gender (MASC/FEM/NEUT, contrasting in SG only and not corresponding to animacy distinctions in any consistent manner), except in adpositional phrases (with adpositions governing the dative or genitive), where the relevant contrast rather is one of animacy or related notions, with masculine and feminine pronouns now only referring to animate (or concrete, figure, salient) referents and with the neuter pronoun (both in singular and plural) replaced by local-adverbial forms (da, wo ), preceding rather than following their adpositions, for inanimate (abstract, ground, not-so-salient) referents | German (Germanic, IE) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | personal pronoun, adverb, animacy |
| 62 | inflection of the great majority of words – nominal, pronominal, verbal –for sex of the speaker (and, in the case of male forms, also of the addressee, with males using female forms when addressing females), with female forms formed from male forms by final syllable reduction or male forms formed from female forms by adding a syllable (whose form depends on the class of word so inflected) | Yana (Hokan) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | deixis |
| 63 | pronoun of most respectful address recruited from pronoun of identity ((allerhöchst)dieselben), rather than from indefinite or least definite pronoun | 18th century German (Germanic, IE) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: gender, respect | pronoun of address, respect, social distance |