Gender copy in comparative perspective

该项目提出了一个问题，即在语言接触的情况下，语法性别的行为是否会产生重复的模式，从而有可能提出概括和假设。该主题对语言接触研究理论和类型学导向的研究计划都很有兴趣，这些研究计划致力于一般的语法性别范畴。与以往大多数在语言接触条件下的语法性别调查不同，该项目根据语言比较的原则来处理这一现象，即对几种二元语言接触情况及其对语法性别的影响进行比较，以识别样本中的异同点。为了确定复制品语言的规则或供体语言的规则是否对外来词融入前者的性别系统起决定性作用，我们比较了30种不对称的同地域长期语言接触情景，这些情景涉及一种著名的主要语言（英语、法语、德语、意大利语、俄语）和一种次要语言(几种凯尔特语、几种罗姆语、波拉比亚语、库尔斯语、阿尔萨斯语、Ket语、摩尔多瓦语、西北高加索语言，东北高加索语言，阿尔巴尼亚语，希腊语，和在意大利使用的斯拉夫语变种)。源语言和复制语言都有（组织方式不同的）性别系统。首要的问题是，这些接触场景在多大程度上证明了性别复制。为了检验这些发现是否属于典型的不对称接触情况，本文还探讨了印欧语系外来词融入现代希伯来语二元性别系统的情况。与该项目相关的有趣问题是：捐赠语言和复制语言中不同数量的性别值是否在选择外来词整合的给定性别方面发挥作用？接触的系统是否遵循不同的组织原则（即纯语义与混合语义-形式）有区别吗？如果捐赠语言和复制语言在其性别系统的基础参数上有所不同（即基于性别与非基于性别），这与外来词整合有任何关系吗？上述案例研究的补充是对现存描述性语言学文献中外来词整合过程中提到的语法性别的跨语言盘点。方法主要是定性的。视角是共时性和历时性的混合。所有实证研究结果将在一个在线数据库中免费提供给感兴趣的公众。这是同类项目中的第一个。研究结果对研究语法性别、语言接触、语言变化、外来词类型学和相关主题的学者很有兴趣。

The project raises the issue whether the behaviour of grammatical gender in language-contact situations yields recurrent patterns so that it is possible to put forward generalizations and hypotheses. The subject matter is of interest to both the theory of language-contact studies and the typologically-oriented research program dedicated to the category of grammatical gender in general. In contrast to the majority of the previous investigations of grammatical gender under the conditions of language contact, the project approaches the phenomena according to the principles of language comparison, i.e. several binary language-contact situations and their effects on grammatical gender are compared to each other in order to identify similarities and dissimilarities across the sample. To determine whether the rules of the replica language or those of the donor language are decisive for the integration of loan words into the gender system of the former, thirty asymmetrical coterritorial long-term language-contact scenarios are compared which involve a prestigious major language (English, French, German, Italian, Russian) and a subordinated minor language (several Celtic languages, several Romani languages, Polabian, Curonian, Alsatian, Ket, Moldavian, North West Caucasian languages, North East Caucasian languages, Albanian, Greek, and Slavic varieties spoken in Italy). Both source languages and replica languages have (differently organized) gender systems. The leading question is to what extent these contact scenarios give evidence of gender copy. To check whether the findings are typical of asymmetrical contact situations, the integration of Indo-European loanwords into the binary gender system of Modern Hebrew is inquired into, too. Interesting questions connected to the project are: Does the different number of gender values in the donor language and the replica language play a role in the selection of a given gender for loan-word integration? Does it make a difference whether the systems in contact follow different principles of organization (i.e. purely semantic vs. mixed semantic-formal)? Is it of any relevance for loan-word integration if donor language and replica language differ on the parameter of the base of their gender systems (i.e. sex-based vs. non-sex-based)? The above case studies are complemented by a cross-linguistic stocktaking of mentions of grammatical gender in the process of loanword integration in the extant descriptive linguistic literature. The methodology is predominantly qualitative. The perspective is mixed synchronic and diachronic. All empirical findings will be made freely accessible to the interested public in an online database. The project is the first of its kind. The results are interesting to scholars who work on grammatical gender, language contact, language change, loan-word typology, and related topics.