Animate Gender ( Concept )
http://purl.org/linguistics/gold/AnimateGender
Thing
|_ Abstract
|_ Linguistic Property
|_ Morphosyntactic Property
|_ Gender Property
|_ Animate Gender
Definition:
A grammatical gender property assigned to a class of nouns with animate denotation. In a given language it may include larger or smaller numbers of nouns which do not meet this semantic criterion. The animate gender may occur in a two-gender system, with the other gender being labelled inanimate. However, the animate gender may also occur in larger inventories (i.e. greater than two values). Examples of these larger systems are found in Bantu languages (where nouns denoting humans are included in the animate gender) and in languages of Daghestan (where the animate gender is typically for non-human animates) [Corbett 1991, 20-32].@en
submit an example
Examples
2009-06-04 13:28:06
| ||||||
| man |
References:
Mithun (1999:99) FROM Frantz (1991:8-9)
2009-06-04 13:28:06
| ||||||||||||
| The man came to me |
References:
Klaiman (1991:17) FROM Allen, Gardiner and Frantz (1984:304-5)
2009-06-04 13:28:06
| ||||||
| man |
References:
Mithun (1999:99) FROM Frantz (1991:8-9)
| Properties | Values | Definition |
|---|---|---|
abbreviation
|
Thing | The abbreviated form representing a scientific term, e.g., ACC, 2, CL. |
argument
|
Clause | The syntactic entity about which something is predicated. |
feature
|
Linguistic Property | The relation between a linguistic unit and a linguistic feature. A feature inheres in its host. NOTE: this relation is distinct from the hasFeature which pertains to data structures. |
has Example
|
Thing | |
has Page Information
|
Thing | |
predicate
|
Clause | The predicate is the relation between the Clause and a portion of a clause, excluding the subject, that expresses something about the subject [Crystal 1980, 280; Hartmann and Stork 1972, 182; Pei and Gaynor 1954, 173; Pike and Pike 1982, 40; Crystal 1985, 241-242]. |
submit an issue
User Submitted Issues
Membership in the animate grammatical class is largely based on meaning, in that living things, including humans, animals, spirits, trees, and most plants may be included in the animate class of nouns. Languages differ to a certain extent in what is construed as animate/inanimate.
On terminology: In systems where humans are excluded from the animate gender by virtue of having human/feminine/masculine gender, it is possible to use the label 'animal gender' for animate gender.