Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!festival!edcogsci!iad
From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Gender in the world's languages
Message-ID: <D13vFK.2H3@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <1994Dec18.000850.7221@henson.cc.wwu.edu> <D0zMKI.HBK@actrix.gen.nz> <3d56en$dtj@nic.umass.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 10:50:06 GMT
Lines: 31

In article <3d56en$dtj@nic.umass.edu> smailer@twain.ucs.umass.edu (Ira Smailer) writes:
>Paul J. Kriha (kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz) wrote:
>: [...] some Slavic languages form plurals differently
>: for animate and inanimate objects.
>: They also have up to 6 different 'declention patterns'
>: in each gender with adjectives declined as well as nouns.  [...]
>
>Not quite. Various declination patterns do not new genders create.

No, but animacy comes close.

>All you have is m/f/n.

In most Slavic languages you actually have `m/f/n' times `anim/inan',
because both of them affect agreement.  In Russian, for example, the
adjective takes the following endings in the accusative, depending on
the gender and the animacy of the noun it agrees with:

           sg.   pl.
  m/anim  -ogo  -yx
  f/anim  -uju  -yx
  n/anim  -oe   -yx
  m/inan  -yj   -ye
  f/inan  -uju  -ye
  n/inan  -oe   -ye

-- 
`Release Jesus wi this mob hangin aroon?  Nae chance!'  (The Glasgow Gospel)
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk, iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
