Gender copy in comparative perspective
Final Report Abstract
The transfer of nouns between languages is a widely common phenomenon. The project looked into what happens to nouns that are borrowed from a gender language into a gender language. Does the loan-noun keep the gender it has in the donor language or is it assigned to a different gender according to the rules of the replica language? In the literature, two strong hypotheses compete with each other with the one claiming that the rules of the replica language normally win out and the opposing view assuming that gender copy, i.e., the preservation of the donor language’s gender assignment, is particularly important in language-contact situations where the replica language is socio-linguistically disadvantaged. For the theory of language-contact phenomena it is important to settle this issue to be able to predict what can happen in a given language-contact scenario and what cannot. The project tested the tenability of the two hypotheses on the basis of fifty-five cases of contact between two gender languages. The loan-noun gender in socio-linguistically challenged as well as socio-linguistically robust replica languages was assessed with a view to determining whether gender copy correlates with certain socio-linguistic factors. The results strongly suggest that gender copy is much more wide-spread across replica languages than previously assumed. Moreover, there is convincing evidence of gender copy being possible also in replica languages that are "healthy" majoritarian standard languages. At the same time, with some notable exceptions, gender copy tends to be especially prominent in replica languages that are generally subject to strong pressure from the prestigious donor language. The project proved also that the gender-assignment rules of both the replica language and the donor language might co-exist in a given replica language. This is why the principles according to which donor language organizes its gender system and those of the replica language are not necessarily mutually exclusive. As by-products of the investigations, it could be shown that (a) gender does not normally arise in language-contact situations and (b) massive borrowing from a donor language without gender can have serious repercussions on the gender system of a replica language.
Publications
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On the (almost im)possible emergence of grammatical gender in language-contact situations. Susceptibility vs. Resistance, 1-50. De Gruyter.
Stolz, Thomas & Levkovych, Nataliya
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Gender Copy in Slavic internationalisms. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 76(4), 499-544.
Levkovych, Nataliya
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Gender assignment in language contact. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 77(2), 235-260.
Levkovych, Nataliya
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2. Feminin, maskulin oder beides? Vorbereitende Gedanken zu einem Projekt über die Genuszuweisung bei englischen Lehnwörtern im Walisischen. Linguistik im Nordwesten, 13-52. Georg Olms Verlag.
Stolz, Thomas & Levkovych, Nataliya
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3. Germanismen als Lehngut: Genuszuweisung bei deutschen Lehnwörtern in sprachvergleichender Perspektive. Linguistik im Nordwesten, 53-96. Georg Olms Verlag.
Levkovych, Nataliya
