Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects
In some Norwegian dialects, such as older Oslo dialect, the noun mamma ‘mother’ unexpectedly appears to be masculine. The Nordreisa dialect (Northern Norwegian) goes one step further. The word looks like it is masculine, but only in the definite form. This is an unusual “split” because gender mixtur...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000098 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1470542712000098 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s1470542712000098 2024-05-19T07:44:24+00:00 Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects Enger, Hans-Olav Corbett, Greville G. 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000098 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1470542712000098 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Journal of Germanic Linguistics volume 24, issue 4, page 287-324 ISSN 1470-5427 1475-3014 journal-article 2012 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000098 2024-05-02T06:50:54Z In some Norwegian dialects, such as older Oslo dialect, the noun mamma ‘mother’ unexpectedly appears to be masculine. The Nordreisa dialect (Northern Norwegian) goes one step further. The word looks like it is masculine, but only in the definite form. This is an unusual “split” because gender mixture is normally based on number, not definiteness (but we find some few corroborative examples in other Norwegian dialects and different, but converging evidence on the Web). The Nordreisa example of mamma is unusual also because agreement targets are affected differently. The preference is for masculine agreement within the noun phrase, but for feminine agreement outside it. This is, therefore, an intriguing example since it combines a split based on definiteness with different gender require-ments according to different agreement targets. On careful analysis, and given strict adherence to the classical, agreement-based definition of gender, the unusual behavior of mamma turns out to conform to the Agreement Hierarchy. * Article in Journal/Newspaper Nordreisa Cambridge University Press Journal of Germanic Linguistics 24 4 287 324 |
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Cambridge University Press |
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English |
description |
In some Norwegian dialects, such as older Oslo dialect, the noun mamma ‘mother’ unexpectedly appears to be masculine. The Nordreisa dialect (Northern Norwegian) goes one step further. The word looks like it is masculine, but only in the definite form. This is an unusual “split” because gender mixture is normally based on number, not definiteness (but we find some few corroborative examples in other Norwegian dialects and different, but converging evidence on the Web). The Nordreisa example of mamma is unusual also because agreement targets are affected differently. The preference is for masculine agreement within the noun phrase, but for feminine agreement outside it. This is, therefore, an intriguing example since it combines a split based on definiteness with different gender require-ments according to different agreement targets. On careful analysis, and given strict adherence to the classical, agreement-based definition of gender, the unusual behavior of mamma turns out to conform to the Agreement Hierarchy. * |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Enger, Hans-Olav Corbett, Greville G. |
spellingShingle |
Enger, Hans-Olav Corbett, Greville G. Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
author_facet |
Enger, Hans-Olav Corbett, Greville G. |
author_sort |
Enger, Hans-Olav |
title |
Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
title_short |
Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
title_full |
Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
title_fullStr |
Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
title_full_unstemmed |
Definiteness, Gender, and Hybrids: Evidence from Norwegian Dialects |
title_sort |
definiteness, gender, and hybrids: evidence from norwegian dialects |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000098 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1470542712000098 |
genre |
Nordreisa |
genre_facet |
Nordreisa |
op_source |
Journal of Germanic Linguistics volume 24, issue 4, page 287-324 ISSN 1470-5427 1475-3014 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1470542712000098 |
container_title |
Journal of Germanic Linguistics |
container_volume |
24 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
287 |
op_container_end_page |
324 |
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1799484177240817664 |