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| sumerian:gender [2008/04/15 16:55] – cale | sumerian:gender [2008/04/16 10:28] (current) – dahl |
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| === Gender === | === Gender === |
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| Grammatical gender should, first of all, be differentiated from both social/cultural gender and biological sex (see Wikipedia's page on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender gender]] for the difference). | Grammatical gender should, first of all, be differentiated from both social/cultural gender and biological sex (see Wikipedia's page on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender|gender]] for the difference). |
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| Grammatical gender is a way of describing classes of nouns within a language that code a variety of information such as [[animacy]] and participate in morphosyntactic phenomena such as [[verbal agreement | agreement]]. | Grammatical gender is a way of describing classes of nouns within a language that code a variety of information such as [[animacy]] and participate in morphosyntactic phenomena such as [[verbal agreement|agreement]]. |
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| Although grammatical gender has played a particularly significant role in prior investigations of Sumerian grammar, comprehensive statements on its place in the overall system have been few and far between. In Michalowski's recent summary of Sumerian grammar, he provides a useful overview of the nature of grammatical gender in Sumerian (2004, 35). Michalowski's summary is particularly concise and is quite representative of the conventional opinion. | Although grammatical gender has played a particularly significant role in prior investigations of Sumerian grammar, comprehensive statements on its place in the overall system have been few and far between. In Michalowski's recent summary of Sumerian grammar, he provides a useful overview of the nature of grammatical gender in Sumerian (2004, 35). Michalowski's summary is particularly concise and is quite representative of the conventional opinion. |
| As Michalowski makes clear, there is no morphologically segmentable group of gender markers in Sumerian, but reflexes of the personal and impersonal genders show up in a number of places within the grammar: wh-words such as **a.ba** "who" and **a.na** "what"; third person [[possessive pronouns]] such as **-a.ni** "his/her" and **-bi** "its" and, crucially, as the lynchpin of a system of [[verbal agreement]]. | As Michalowski makes clear, there is no morphologically segmentable group of gender markers in Sumerian, but reflexes of the personal and impersonal genders show up in a number of places within the grammar: wh-words such as **a.ba** "who" and **a.na** "what"; third person [[possessive pronouns]] such as **-a.ni** "his/her" and **-bi** "its" and, crucially, as the lynchpin of a system of [[verbal agreement]]. |
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| Perhaps more importantly, however, grammatical gender occupies a place within an [[animacy]] hierarchy or, to be more precise, a hierarchy of [[animary | inherent lexical content]]. Sumerian is a so-called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_ergativity split ergative]] language and one of the hallmark's of many split ergative systems is that animacy or inherent lexical content plays a role in determining whether the case-marking on a particular nominal phrase is [[ergative-absolutive]] or [[accusative-nominative]]. | Perhaps more importantly, however, grammatical gender occupies a place within an [[animacy]] hierarchy or, to be more precise, a hierarchy of [[animary | inherent lexical content]]. Sumerian is a so-called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_ergativity|split ergative]] language and one of the hallmark's of many split ergative systems is that animacy or inherent lexical content plays a role in determining whether the case-marking on a particular nominal phrase is [[ergative-absolutive]] or [[accusative-nominative]]. |
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| == The role of grammatical gender in Sumerian grammatical theory == | == The role of grammatical gender in Sumerian grammatical theory == |
