On the so-called Romanian “neuter”
We discuss several possible analyses of Romanian “neuter” nouns (a productive class of nouns which trigger masculine agreement in the singular and feminine agreement in the plural): the three-gender analysis (Romanian has three genders and systematic syncretism), the ambigeneric analysis (Romanian n...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti
2009-01-01
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| Series: | Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://bwpl.unibuc.ro/index.pl/on_the_so-called_romanian_neuter |
| _version_ | 1818395380561215488 |
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| author | Ion Giurgea Blanca Croitor |
| author_facet | Ion Giurgea Blanca Croitor |
| author_sort | Ion Giurgea |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We discuss several possible analyses of Romanian “neuter” nouns (a productive class of nouns which trigger masculine agreement in the singular and feminine agreement in the plural): the three-gender analysis (Romanian has three genders and systematic syncretism), the ambigeneric analysis (Romanian neuters are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural), the underspecification analysis (Romanian neuters are not specified for gender) and the nominal class analysis (nouns do not have genders, but rather nominal classes which are selected by Number heads on which the gender feature is generated). The arguments used to decide between these analyses are (i) gender in the pronominal system, (ii) gender agreement in coordination and (iii) general economy considerations. We retain the underspecification analysis and the nominal class analysis and propose solutions to the problems these analyses face. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T06:16:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1cfeac8d7a034025ae93627ab652d6d2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2069-9239 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T06:16:11Z |
| publishDate | 2009-01-01 |
| publisher | Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-1cfeac8d7a034025ae93627ab652d6d22022-12-21T23:14:01ZengEditura Universitatii din BucurestiBucharest Working Papers in Linguistics2069-92392009-01-01XI22140On the so-called Romanian “neuter”Ion GiurgeaBlanca CroitorWe discuss several possible analyses of Romanian “neuter” nouns (a productive class of nouns which trigger masculine agreement in the singular and feminine agreement in the plural): the three-gender analysis (Romanian has three genders and systematic syncretism), the ambigeneric analysis (Romanian neuters are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural), the underspecification analysis (Romanian neuters are not specified for gender) and the nominal class analysis (nouns do not have genders, but rather nominal classes which are selected by Number heads on which the gender feature is generated). The arguments used to decide between these analyses are (i) gender in the pronominal system, (ii) gender agreement in coordination and (iii) general economy considerations. We retain the underspecification analysis and the nominal class analysis and propose solutions to the problems these analyses face.http://bwpl.unibuc.ro/index.pl/on_the_so-called_romanian_neutergenderneuteragreementcoordinationpronouns |
| spellingShingle | Ion Giurgea Blanca Croitor On the so-called Romanian “neuter” Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics gender neuter agreement coordination pronouns |
| title | On the so-called Romanian “neuter” |
| title_full | On the so-called Romanian “neuter” |
| title_fullStr | On the so-called Romanian “neuter” |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the so-called Romanian “neuter” |
| title_short | On the so-called Romanian “neuter” |
| title_sort | on the so called romanian neuter |
| topic | gender neuter agreement coordination pronouns |
| url | http://bwpl.unibuc.ro/index.pl/on_the_so-called_romanian_neuter |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT iongiurgea onthesocalledromanianneuter AT blancacroitor onthesocalledromanianneuter |