Combining gender and classifiers in natural language
Workshop on Gender and Classifiers: Cross-linguistic Perspectives
The Workshop on Gender and Classifiers: Cross-linguistic Perspectives was held 17 January 2014 in Room 75MS02, Rik Medlik Building, University of Surrey as part of the project Combining gender and classifiers in natural language.
Background
Gender and classifiers are usually thought of as mutually exclusive systems of noun categorization. In a gender system, as for example in Italian or German, nouns are assigned one or more genders on a semantic or formal basis, and the genders of the language can be defined by sets of markers on agreement targets. In a classifier system, as we find it in Chinese or Vietnamese for instance, a noun appears with a semantically compatible classifier in certain contexts, e.g. quantification with a numeral. But recent research has turned up more and more languages (mostly Papuan, South American, and Australian) in which the two co-occur together, yielding overlapping and interacting systems of classification. This is an exciting and new area of enquiry which promises to expand our understanding of the semantics and morphology of classification, and of cognitive categories in general.
Programme
17 January, 2014
| 09.00-09.25 | Welcome coffee |
| 09.25-09.30 | Greville G. Corbett, Welcome and introduction |
| 09.30-10.30 | Gunter Senft, Systems of nominal classification |
| 10.30-11.15 | Maria Polinsky, The differential representation of number and gender |
| 11.15-11.45 | Coffee break |
| 11.45-12.15 | Sebastian Fedden and Greville Corbett, Gender and classifiers combined: Mian and its typological context |
| 12.15-12.45 | Pier Marco Bertinetto and Luca Ciucci, Possessive classifiers in gender-marking Ayoreo and Chamacoco |
| 12.45-13.15 | Natalia Eraso, Gender and classifiers in the Tanimuka language - Colombia |
| 13.15-14.30 | Lunch break |
| 14.30-15.00 | Alexandra Clifford, The relationship between noun categorisation and perceptual categorisation: A developmental and cross-linguistic approach |
| 15.00-15.30 | Colette Grinevald and Orly Goldwasser, At the crossroad of gender and classifiers in Ancient Egyptian |
| 15.30-16.00 | Serge Sagna, On the categorisation of body parts and loanwords in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa noun class/gender system |
| 16.00-16.30 | Coffee break |
| 16.30-17.00 | Matthias Passer, The twofold nature of nominal categorisation: Shifting from semantics to morphosyntax? |
| 17.00-17.30 | Kate Bellamy and Rita Eloranta, Mochica: Between a numeral classifier and a special counting system |
Abstracts
Download the abstracts booklet [PDF]
Project members
Prof Greville G. Corbett
Dr Matthew Baerman
Dr Dunstan Brown (University of York)
Dr Sebastian Fedden
Dr Timothy Feist
Consultants:
Prof Maria Polinsky (University of Maryland)
Prof Gunter Senft (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen)
Period of award:
April 2013 - May 2016
Funder
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
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