Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

100 Letizia Vezzosi
.1 Third type of gender deviance: [± countable]
The close relationship between number and gender is so undisputedly recognized
for gender to be the category most often realised together with number:
indeed Greenberg claims that agreement in gender implies number agreement
(1978: 9 ). Cross-linguistically, phenomena of syncretism are commonly observed,
where singular forms have more gender specifications than the plural. In a convergent
system there is only one form for the plural with no gender distinction
(cf. in German there are three genders in the singular, e.g., der Tisch – die Tasche
– das Buch vs. one in the plural, e.g., die Tische-Taschen-Bücher); in cross systems
the gender distinctions in the plural are also found in the singular (cf. in Tamil
the singular indicates masculine, feminine and neuter while the plural rational vs.
neuter, or in Qatar where the associative particle in the masculine form is used
also for feminine 15 and masculine plurals, e.g., -ka).
Gender syncretism of this kind is proper to Old English too, but has nothing
to do with gender instability. In Old English there is an alternation between the
neuter gender in the singular (cf. 8a and 9a) and the masculine or feminine gender
in the plural (cf. 8b and 9b) within the paradigm of the same noun.
(8) a. [Bt.Met. Fox 26, 235] ðæt ingeþonc ælces monnes ðone lit [læt] ðider hit wile
“the mind of every man bands the body whither it will”
b. [Bt. 7.1; Fox 16, 5] Oþ ðæt he ongeat ðæs modes inngeþoncas
“until he understood the mind’s thoughts”
(9) a. [Chr. 1086] … Hy arerdon unrihte tollas
“They established unfair tributes”
b [Chart.Th. 635, 2 ] and Ælfric Hals nam þæt toll for ðæs kynges hand.
“and Ælfric Hals took the impost for the king’s hand”
More than one reason can be advanced to justify the shift from neuter to nonneuter
gender, the first being morphological transparency, since in many inflection
paradigms plural neuter nouns are not distinguished from singular ones.
However, while it is certain that plurality is associated with non-neuter gender,
what can be pluralized can also be counted: In other words, the semantic feature
connected with non-neuter gender in these instances is [± countable].
. Third type of gender deviance: [± specific] [± individuated]
In another subset of nouns, the alternation neuter vs. non-neuter seems to depend
on the interpretation of the referent: cwælm in (10a) is different from cwælm in
1 . In Qatar the associative particle in the feminine form is –ta.