Mernzel, Thomas: Differential Gender. Lexicalized Adjectives and Participles in Sorbian from the point of view of Gender-Linguistic Preferences
Lětopis Abstract 2023:Thomas Menzel: Differential Gender. Lexicalized Adjectives and Participles in Sorbian from the point of view of
Gender-Linguistic Preferences
When looking at the differential genders of adjectives and participles made into nouns, the only way of establishing the female/male gender of
individual persons is by referring to gender-specific inflections. This allows for a symmetrical expression of gender differences, which corresponds
to gender-linguistic preferences in a particular way. The extent of such nominalizations in the online lexicography of Lower and Upper Sorbian is
examined in this study. We examine firstly whether these forms appear in gender pairs and how far they appear to be subject to gender-linguistic
preferences. Secondly, using semantic and formal criteria, we examine whether they appear as loan translations from German and whether they would be
able to transfer the gender-linguistic preferences of the major contact language into Sorbian. This process applies in both Sorbian languages to
almost half the nominalizations. The present-day lexicography of Lower Sorbian works in a more regular way in relation to the gender pairing of
nominalizations compared with Upper Sorbian online lexicography.
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