| Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity II Contributor(s): Di Garbo, Francesca (Editor), Olsson, Bruno (Editor), Wälchli, Bernhard (Editor) |
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ISBN: 3961101817 ISBN-13: 9783961101818 Publisher: Language Science Press OUR PRICE: $57.95 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - General |
| Physical Information: 0.88" H x 6.69" W x 9.61" (1.82 lbs) 396 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world's languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. Volume two consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity. This volume is preceded by volume one, which, in addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia. |
