16 Gender discrepancies and evaluative gender shift: A cross-linguistic study within Distributed Morphology
-
Olga Steriopolo
Abstract
This research proposes an analysis of the meaning (function) and structure (form) of grammatical gender discrepancies (or gender mismatches) across a number of languages that allow for an evaluative gender shift (e.g., referring to a woman with masculine grammatical gender or to a man with feminine grammatical gender), making them highly relevant to evaluative/diminutive morphology more generally. In terms of the function, I suggest that the structural level of the DP, located directly above the level of “categorization”, can signal the speaker’s understanding of a deviation from the social norm (as accepted in a given society) as well as the speaker’s personal attitudes and emotions (I call this level “the speaker’s perspective”). In terms of the form, I propose that grammatical gender discrepancies can arise as the result of a conflict in the values (+ or -) of morphosyntactic gender features that are located on two structurally different levels of the DP, namely those of categorization and the speaker’s perspective.
Abstract
This research proposes an analysis of the meaning (function) and structure (form) of grammatical gender discrepancies (or gender mismatches) across a number of languages that allow for an evaluative gender shift (e.g., referring to a woman with masculine grammatical gender or to a man with feminine grammatical gender), making them highly relevant to evaluative/diminutive morphology more generally. In terms of the function, I suggest that the structural level of the DP, located directly above the level of “categorization”, can signal the speaker’s understanding of a deviation from the social norm (as accepted in a given society) as well as the speaker’s personal attitudes and emotions (I call this level “the speaker’s perspective”). In terms of the form, I propose that grammatical gender discrepancies can arise as the result of a conflict in the values (+ or -) of morphosyntactic gender features that are located on two structurally different levels of the DP, namely those of categorization and the speaker’s perspective.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction: Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains 1
-
Part I: Theoretical approaches to diminutive formation
- 2 On a low and a high position for diminutive non-manual markers in Italian Sign Language 37
- 3 Diminutive or singulative? The suffixes -in and -k in Russian 65
- 4 Slavic diminutive morphology: An interplay of scope, templates and paradigms 89
- 5 Diminutive formation in Spanish: Evidence for word morphology 115
- 6 The syllable as the basis for word formation: Evidence from diminutives, hypocoristics and clippings in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish and French 131
-
Part II: Corpus-based and other empirical studies
- 7 The Swedish suffix -is and its place within evaluative morphology 153
- 8 Diminutives and number: Theoretical predictions and empirical evidence from German in Austria 179
- 9 Diminutive verbs in the Austrian language area: Morphological and semantic challenges 205
- 10 Challenges in analyzing Polish diminutives 231
- 11 Diminutives among other -k(a) words in colloquial Russian: Frequency and suffix variation 253
-
Part III: Sociolinguistic, pragmatic and acquisitional studies
- 12 Borrowed or inspired? Komi diminutive under Russian influence 277
- 13 Acquisition of diminutives in Russian and Estonian from a typological perspective 305
- 14 Morphological richness and priority of pragmatics over semantics in Italian, Arabic, German and English diminutives 335
- 15 Diminutive variation in Austrian Standard German: A corpuslinguistic study 363
- 16 Gender discrepancies and evaluative gender shift: A cross-linguistic study within Distributed Morphology 387
- Index 415
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction: Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains 1
-
Part I: Theoretical approaches to diminutive formation
- 2 On a low and a high position for diminutive non-manual markers in Italian Sign Language 37
- 3 Diminutive or singulative? The suffixes -in and -k in Russian 65
- 4 Slavic diminutive morphology: An interplay of scope, templates and paradigms 89
- 5 Diminutive formation in Spanish: Evidence for word morphology 115
- 6 The syllable as the basis for word formation: Evidence from diminutives, hypocoristics and clippings in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish and French 131
-
Part II: Corpus-based and other empirical studies
- 7 The Swedish suffix -is and its place within evaluative morphology 153
- 8 Diminutives and number: Theoretical predictions and empirical evidence from German in Austria 179
- 9 Diminutive verbs in the Austrian language area: Morphological and semantic challenges 205
- 10 Challenges in analyzing Polish diminutives 231
- 11 Diminutives among other -k(a) words in colloquial Russian: Frequency and suffix variation 253
-
Part III: Sociolinguistic, pragmatic and acquisitional studies
- 12 Borrowed or inspired? Komi diminutive under Russian influence 277
- 13 Acquisition of diminutives in Russian and Estonian from a typological perspective 305
- 14 Morphological richness and priority of pragmatics over semantics in Italian, Arabic, German and English diminutives 335
- 15 Diminutive variation in Austrian Standard German: A corpuslinguistic study 363
- 16 Gender discrepancies and evaluative gender shift: A cross-linguistic study within Distributed Morphology 387
- Index 415
