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3 questions
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Do any languages assign gender to inanimate objects based on material properties like flexibility instead of shape?
In the Palikur language of Brazil, inanimate objects that are solid and strong all have feminine gender, while objects that are soft, fragile or flexible have neuter gender. (There are no inanimate ...
- 131
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2
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Can the need for ambiguity lead to merge of grammatical person, or other semantic merge?
My mother tongue doesn't distinguish 3.SG.F and 3.SG.M in speech. In some cases I feel the redundancy of it and the need for ambiguity of the grammatical person when I speak a language which ...
- 1,087
1
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0
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Feminine and neuter plural
The Indo-European feminine declension looks like the neuter plural. The usual explanation seems to be that feminine evolved out of an earlier inanimate collective but the semantics doesn't seem to be ...
- 2,195