The notion of inflection and the expression of nominal gender in Spanish

• Igor A. Melčuk ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Montreal

     University of Montreal

     Canadá

     
• Localización: Studies in language: International Journal Sponsored by The Foundation "Foundations of Language", ISSN 0378-4177, Vol. 37, Nº 4, 2013, págs. 736-763
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • The paper discusses the morphological status and the function of Spanish nominal endings -o and -a (ciel+o ‘sky’ vs. caj+a ‘box’); it is shown that both endings, plus the endings -e and -Ø, are inflectional suffixes that mark, however, not the values of an inflectional category (like nominal number or verbal tense), but the values of a feature of the syntactics of the noun — the nominal gender. The ‘nominal gender’ is defined as a cluster concept based on eight properties; it is a particular case of ‘agreement class’ opposed to ‘noun class.’ Some particularities of Spanish nominal gender are examined: its interaction with diminutive suffixes, gender conversion, and its “non-prototypical” character (a parallel is drawn between Spanish nominal genders and noun classes in Fula).