177 4964 1 PB PDF
177 4964 1 PB PDF
177 4964 1 PB PDF
general linguistics
Fedden, Sebastian and Greville G. Corbett. 2017. Gender and classifiers in
concurrent systems: Refining the typology of nominal classification. Glossa: a
journal of general linguistics 2(1): 34. 1–47, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.177
RESEARCH
Some languages have both gender and classifiers, contrary to what was once believed possible.
We use these interesting languages as a unique window onto nominal classification. They provide
the impetus for a new typology, based on the degree of orthogonality of the semantic systems
and the degree of difference of the forms realizing them. This nine-way typology integrates tra-
ditional gender, traditional classifiers and – importantly – the many recently attested phenom-
ena lying between. Besides progress specifically in understanding nominal classification, our
approach provides clarity on the wider theoretical issue of single versus concurrent featural
systems.
1 Introduction
As exciting new systems of nominal classification have been discovered, it has become
increasingly clear that their typology needs a radical overhaul. In particular, the tradi-
tional division between gender and classifiers as fulfilling similar functions in languages
of different types is ever harder to maintain. In part this is because the belief that lan-
guages might have either gender or classifiers has proved false: some languages have
both. To make progress we focus specifically on languages where there is a plausible
claim that they have more than one system of nominal classification. We do so adopting
a canonical approach. We present a key language in some detail, and then give examples
of the different typological possibilities.
to which the semantics of the two (candidate) systems are orthogonal to each other, that
is, the extent to which their sets of grammatical meanings cross-cut each other, and (ii)
the degree to which their means of realization are distinct.
(1) Italian
il nuov-o libr-o
def.m.sg new-m.sg book(m)-sg
‘the new book’
1 http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/approaches/canonical-typology/bibliography/.
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 3 of 47
(2) Italian
i nuov-i libr-i
def.m.pl new-m.pl book(m)-pl
‘the new books’
(3) Italian
la nuov-a rivist-a
def.f.sg new-f.sg magazine(f)-sg
‘the new magazine’
(4) Italian
le nuov-e rivist-e
def.f.pl new-f.pl magazine(f)-pl
‘the new magazines’
These examples illustrate ways in which the Italian gender system is largely canonical.
Most importantly, each noun has a single gender value: libro ‘book’ is masculine, while
rivista ‘magazine’ is feminine. These gender values are fixed, not variable, and this is true
of the great majority of Italian nouns (in the canonical world it would of course be true of
all of them). Moreover, when we check the different agreement domains of Italian, they
allow us to divide the nouns into two agreement classes, and these correspond directly
to the two gender values, masculine and feminine. Nouns have a constant gender value
across all domains: in our examples, the gender value is the same for the article and for
the adjective, singular and plural. And in many (but not all instances), the gender of a
noun can be read off its lexical entry (semantic and morphological information). Thus
Italian, as suggested by these examples, has a gender system which is canonical to a great
extent; for much more detail on canonical gender see Corbett & Fedden (2016).
Turning now to classifiers, the term “classifier” is commonly employed as a cover term
for a wide range of nominal classification devices. Though they overlap, four broad types
are often distinguished: numeral classifiers, noun classifiers, possessive classifiers and
verbal classifiers.
Numeral classifiers occur in the noun phrase in the context of quantification. In Lao, for
example, in order to count lot1 ‘vehicle’ the classifier for vehicles khan2 must be used.
(5) Lao (Enfield 2007: 124; the numbers after the Lao words indicate tones)
Kuu3 lak1 lot1 sòòng3 khan2.
1sg steal vehicle two cl:vehicle
‘I stole two cars.’
Noun classifiers appear independent of quantification. In the following example (6) from
Akatek the noun txitam ‘pig’ is collocated with the classifier no’ for animals.
Possessive classifiers are typically bound to the possessor and classify the possessed. Pos-
sessive classifiers which classify the functional relation between the possessed and the
Art. 34, page 4 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
possessor are also called relational classifiers (Lichtenberk 1983). An example for North
Ambrym is given in (7).
Unlike the three previous types, verbal classifiers do not appear in the noun phrase, but
are part of the verb and classify a nominal argument (typically S or O). For more on
verbal classification, see Passer (2016). If we are maximally inclusive, we can identify
three subtypes of verbal classifier. In classificatory noun incorporation, a generic noun
is incorporated into the verb to classify a specific noun, for example,’treht- ‘cl:vehicle’
in Cayuga.
Verbal classifiers can have the form of affixes as for example in Klamath (Barker 1964).
The concept of verbal classifiers has also been applied to suppletive classificatory verbs,
in which categorization and predication are fused in a single unanalyzable verb form
(Barron 1982). Examples (10) and (11) from Navajo show that the choice of verb depends
on the class of the noun.
Deictic and locative classifiers, which appear on determiners and adpositions, respec-
tively, are usually considered minor types (Senft 2007: 685–686, and references there).
In this brief overview of nominal classification devices typically termed “classifiers” we
have chosen examples which are as distinctive as possible; as we shall see when we look
at a wider range of languages, “classifiers” are less clearly distinguished than the usual
terms suggest.
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 5 of 47
Gender Classifiers
The idea of an opposition between gender and classifiers was presented clearly by Dixon
(1982; 1986); this account merits discussion since it was influential in its time and because
the distinct terms “gender” and “classifier” tend to maintain the opposition even as chal-
lenging evidence has accumulated. Dixon used varied sets of criteria to oppose gender
systems and classifier systems, for which he employed the terms “noun class” and “noun
classification”, respectively. These criteria – listed in Table 1 – refer to the size, realiza-
tion, scope, and semantics of these types of system.
While some of these criteria have stood the test of time, especially those for gender
(for example, the criterion that all nouns are classified in gender systems), others have
to be jettisoned or at least revised.2 In particular we do not accept that the number
of classes should be indicative of whether something is a gender or a classifier sys-
tem. We believe that a linguistic phenomenon should not be defined by the number of
instances. The definition of case as opposed to adposition does not refer to the number
of instances, nor would definitions of tense or conjunction. Equally, it is fully appro-
priate to observe that, given a particular definition, a language has a number of case
values or adpositions which is unusual for the languages of its family or its area, or
that it stands out more generally for a high or low inventory of the phenomenon being
investigated.
A different, and often cited, criterion is that a noun is lexically specified for a single
gender, while a noun may take a whole range of classifiers if they are semantically com-
patible. However, this criterion is much less sound than it might have appeared initially.
It is the canonical situation for gender systems to assign each noun to one and only one
gender (Corbett & Fedden 2016), but there are examples of systems which most would
recognize as gender systems yet which are further away from the canonical ideal because
they allow – at least for a subset of nouns – more than one gender value. An example is
Savosavo, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands (Wegener 2012), where all inani-
mates are masculine but can be feminine, thereby indicating that the referent is small
compared to the norm or that it is in some way special. Another is Mawng, an Iwaidjan
language of the Northern Territory of Australia, analysed in detail by Singer (2016). A
2 See, for example, the discussion by Seifart & Payne (2007: 383–384). For a review of the literature on
gender see Audring (2011).
Art. 34, page 6 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
give examples of languages with a gender system and numeral classifiers. Moreover, they
go beyond this and acknowledge explicitly that the two systems can be of the same type,
for example a language can have two distinct gender systems. These are positive points
to retain. The idea of languages potentially having two gender systems, and whether an
analysis as a single “combined” gender system is possible, is discussed in Corbett (2012:
174–180). The languages discussed there are Burmeso, Mba and Michif, each of which
will be included in our typology below. And earlier Heine (1982) pointed to differences in
the pronominal and nominal systems of gender in his account of gender in the languages
of Africa. Aikhenvald’s (2000) approach to combined classification systems is hampered
by the typology that she uses for classification systems in general, which is based on the
locus of marking. While this approach can distinguish numeral, verbal, or deictic classi-
fiers from each other, depending on where the classifying formative appears in any given
language, it runs into considerable difficulties for languages in which different parts of
speech, for example numerals, verbs, and articles, each occur with a formally identical or
very similar classifier. A locus-based typology of noun classification devices, as also advo-
cated by Grinevald (2000), has to analyse such a language as having numeral, verbal, and
deictic classifiers, while obscuring the agreement-like properties of such a system in the
process, a point made by Seifart (2005; 2009).
approaches see Corbett 2015: 147–149.) How is this relevant? Think of a language like
Latin, in which one set of adjectives shows a three-way gender distinction (e.g. bonus
‘good’ with masculine, feminine and neuter forms) and another set shows a compatible
two-way distinction (e.g. tristis ‘sad’, which has complete syncretism for masculine and
feminine and a distinct set of forms for neuter) (Greenough et al. 1903: 46, 50). Our
approach will suggest that the controller must make a three-way distinction (that is,
there are three “controller gender values”, Corbett 2012: 83), and that the morphological
realization rules will account for the difference between the full set of distinctions (for
adjectives like bonus ‘good’) and the systematic syncretism (for adjectives like tristis ‘sad’).
In other words, we shall be encouraged to look for single systems where others might be
pushed in the other direction by their theoretical point of view. When we go on to exam-
ine elements that are more classifier-like, the situation becomes even more interesting.
Some linguists treat them as (almost) free lexemes, listing them as instances of a similar
type, hardly forming a system. And then it is natural to have different inventories for
different syntactic positions (the analogue of treating different agreement targets as the
basis for different gender systems). We find the typologies starting from this position have
not been particularly productive. The alternative is to ask whether, in the languages we
investigate, classifier-like elements can be seen as forming a system, perhaps even with
some properties analogous to agreement. We invite the reader to evaluate the results of
this approach.
number
singular plural
gender
masculine nuov-o nuov-i
feminine nuov-a nuov-e
This is meant not just as a convenient representation, but rather as a claim that the analy-
sis should indeed have two features, each with two values. The alternative would be this
analysis, with a single feature (which we will call NumGen).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 9 of 47
What are the arguments for choosing the analysis represented in (12) rather than that
given in (13)? The first, and most important, is that the two proposed features are orthog-
onal to each other (they cross-cut). Nouns which take masculine agreement can be sin-
gular or plural, as can those which take feminine agreement. Equally, if we gather the
nouns which take singular agreement they can be masculine or feminine, as equally for
the plurals. Connected to this orthogonality is the point that generalizations may refer to
a feature independently: thus synthetic verbs in Italian agree in number but not in gender.
While the two features are in principle orthogonal in Italian, this does not extend to
full orthogonality. As just one instance, there are many singularia tantum nouns. Such
instances do not negate the orthogonality of the features in principle. They do, however,
give us an indicator as to canonicity here: it seems evident that if we had Italian´, like
Italian but with fewer (or even no) singularia tantum nouns, the case for recognizing two
systems would be if anything stronger.
The second argument concerns the realization of these systems. The adjectival forms
given in (12) show cumulation of number and gender. As mentioned in terms of the first
argument, however, there are number forms (of synthetic verbs) showing number without
gender. Imagine, however, that we had another language similar to Italian but where the
exponents of gender and number were always quite separate: in this language the case
for two systems would be even clearer. In canonical terms, the more distinct the means of
realization of the systems are, the more clearly different the two systems are.3
The third argument will have varying weight for different linguists; it is the typological
argument. The number system of Italian is similar to other number systems we have seen;
these other systems might have more values, and function slightly differently, but there
are evident similarities. Equally the gender system bears various resemblances to other
gender systems. For typological purposes we should treat number and gender separately,
and compare each of them cross-linguistically. But here, we wish to go a step further:
we will compare situations where there are (arguably) two systems with other situations
involving two systems.
We have started from a deliberately clear example, and the data we have to address are
considerably trickier. We therefore spell out the canonical extremes from the discussion
of Italian, and then set up the canonical possibilities based on some fictitious dialects of
“Italian”. At one extreme, imagine we have a feature whose values have a unified seman-
tics, showing no orthogonality between them, each realized by a form unique to that
value (this would be a canonical morphosyntactic feature, Corbett 2012: 153–167). The
lack of orthogonality leads us to analyse this as a single system; indeed it is a canonical
instance of a single system. Contrast that with the situation where there is a second set
of values, completely orthogonal to the first, and where the realization of these values is
distinct (that is, with no overlap of form within the feature or across features). We would
analyse this with equal confidence as constituting two features (and a canonical instance
of two systems).
3 In this respect the example we have chosen could be thought of as an unfavourable one; in fact, it makes
the point quite strongly. Given the orthogonality of gender and number in Italian, we are not swayed one
way or the other by the realization of the features. It is important to bear this point in mind as we consider
a range of different systems, attempting to maintain a consistent viewpoint for all of them.
Art. 34, page 10 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
These two extremes can be found in the two most different hypothetical dialects under
discussion, set up to make the issues as clear as possible. The two extremes are labelled
Dialect A1 (canonically one system) and Dialect C3 (canonically two systems), with the
less clear-cut examples lying between. For ease of exposition, we will concentrate on
phrases consisting of numeral, noun, and adjective:
In Dialect C3, the numeral is as in Dialect A1, but the adjective distinguishes augmented-
diminutive. The two systems are orthogonal, that is all four possibilities are found, as
exemplified in example (15). Moreover the realization of the animacy system and the size
system is fully distinct. We would have no hesitation in saying we have two systems here.
(We may well call them both gender systems, as allowed for by Derbyshire & Payne 1990
noted earlier, but the main point is that they are indeed two systems.)
We have “rigged” our dialects of Italian to keep the issues as clear as possible. The
grammatical meanings involved are animacy and size, which can readily be imagined as
separate or interrelated. (The reasons why real instances of Dialect C3 with augmented-
diminutive are vanishingly rare are discussed in Corbett 2012: 145–150.)4 Moreover, we
4 This is a complication resulting from the special nature of gender, which makes our investigation particu-
larly tricky. Contrasting gender and number in (12) works easily because of the different nature of the two
features. Gender is special in that in the canonical instance we have one value per noun, and this value is
predictable (Corbett & Fedden 2016). Distinguishing two sets of values of this type will naturally be more
difficult than in situations like (12).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 11 of 47
have two targets, numerals and adjectives, and we allow these to behave differently. For
the purposes of understanding the issues, the reader can assume that there is no trickery
going on in aspects of the dialect that we do not mention.
Having seen the idealized extremes (represented in Dialect A1, which is canonically
one system, and Dialect C3, canonically two systems), the reader will suspect that there
is, naturally, a good deal of reality lying between these extremes. This is indeed the case,
and to help to calibrate the space we outline seven further hypothetical dialects below.
For each one we present the key phrases followed by the values of animacy and size as
appropriate.
In this dialect we have a clear distinction of animacy, as seen on the numeral and on the
adjective. However, the situation is not as clear-cut as in Dialect A1. There the realization
of the animate-inanimate distinction was the same on numeral and adjective. In Dialect
A2 the forms are not identical in this way, but nor are they completely different; rather
they overlap partially. We would not say that such a dialect has two systems, for numer-
als and adjectives; it has just an animacy distinction, but this is marked less canonically
than in Dialect A1.
In Dialect A3, numerals and adjectives do not share any forms. However, the distinction
they make is exactly the same. We clearly have one system here, animacy, which is real-
ized differently on different targets. This is an instance where our canonical approach
begins to highlight inconsistencies in previous typologies. It seems evident that we are
dealing with one system in (17), and this is what is assumed when analyzing gender. Lin-
guists typically would not suggest that there is a “numeral gender system” and an “adjec-
tive gender system” in this dialect. And yet for classifiers, analysts do sometimes adopt
such an approach, often without arguing for it.
Let us now return to the other extreme, Dialect C3. Here we had different semantics (dif-
ferent sets of grammatical meanings) realized through different forms, and we consider
this to be a canonical case of two systems. There are two further instances to consider,
both characterized by different semantics, which we label Dialect C1 and Dialect C2.
Working in from the canonically two systems of Dialect C3, we consider Dialect C2 first.
Here the sets of forms are not fully distinct; rather there is a partial overlap of form.
Here the situation is also clear; we have two systems (animacy and size). They share their
means of exponence in part, in that the -i affix is an exponent in both systems. The next
dialect, Dialect C1, shows a further step away from the canonical ideal of Dialect C3:
Art. 34, page 12 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
In this dialect, we still have two systems of grammatical meaning. And yet the means of
realizing these two systems are now the same. These same sets of forms have a different
significance on numerals as opposed to adjectives; there is no hesitation in suggesting that
there are two systems here, animacy and size.
The remaining three dialects, Type B, are the most interesting. They all have partial
overlap in the grammatical meaning of the feature values. The particular overlap we use
for illustration is that all animates are treated as augmentative (perhaps animates count
as more important, and augmentative takes in important entities). This gives a three-way
distinction: animate, inanimate augmentative, inanimate diminutive. Given this overlap
in grammatical meanings, there are three possibilities for the sets of forms. They can be
the same (Dialect B1), have a partial overlap (Dialect B2), or be different (Dialect B3).
Here glossing is not straightforward. Simpatic-i can indicate augmentative, but only for
inanimate nouns; for animate nouns there is no contrast augmentative/diminutive. On
numerals and on adjectives, animate nouns always take the form in -i; this contrasts with
-e (which for numerals gives an animacy contrast and for adjectives a size contrast). This
overlap in forms leads us to suggest that we have a single system here, with three values
(which we might label animate, inanimate-augmentative, inanimate-diminutive).5
Compare that with Dialect B3 where the forms are distinct:
Dialect B3 has a system of grammatical meaning fully comparable with that of Dialect
B1; however, the system of forms is different. Each of the candidate features, and each
value, is realized by a unique form. This difference in form would lead us to recognize two
systems, animacy and size (though these are not as canonically two systems as Type C3).6
Consider finally the dialect in which there is a partial overlap of form:7
Semantics
Same Partial overlap Different
Same A1 B1 C1
Form Partial overlap A2 B2 C2
Different A3 B3 C3
This set-up is exactly mid-way between a canonically single system (as in Dialect A1)
and canonically two systems (as in Dialect C3). Dialect B2 represents the canonical mid-
point; one could say that it has 1.5 systems. (Of course, real systems are unlikely to be
quite so perfectly balanced.)
The nine possibilities are set out in Table 2. We will discuss these in Sections 4–6.
It is essential to be clear about what is intended by Table 2; the laconic labels “same”
and “different” need to be carefully interpreted. We discuss this briefly here, and then
return to it in the light of the interesting data from Mian, presented in Section 3. “Same”
in terms of semantics clearly covers systems where the possible semantic distinctions
that can be made are identical for different targets. Recall that semantics here primarily
concerns grammatical meaning. Given that the distinctions available are human vs. non-
human, masculine vs. feminine, long vs. short, and so on, we are interested in whether
different targets make the same distinctions, irrespective of whether controlling nouns are
allotted these specifications on purely semantic grounds or by a combination of semantic
and formal criteria.8
In addition to examples where the distinctions drawn are identical, we also include
instances where two candidate systems are not identical, but where one subsumes the
other. In other words, there is a many-to-one mapping between the two candidate sys-
tems: given one set of distinctions in grammatical meaning, the other is fully predictable.9
Thus if the lexical entries of nouns included featural specification for the larger system,
this would also be sufficient for the smaller system, since the latter is fully predictable
(whatever the formal realization).
Let us turn to form. To justify postulating any gender system, we need to be able to
point to differences in form on agreement targets, and not just differences between nouns
(see Hockett 1958: 231; Steele 1978: 610; Corbett 1991: 146–147). In other words, there
must be an inventory of agreement markers justifying the different gender values. That
is just the prerequisite, and is not what is intended in Table 2. Rather we need to distin-
guish situations where two (or more) separate systems of nominal classification should
be recognized from those where there is one system. So to qualify as different forms for
8 That is, if the nouns in a given language are divided into, say, masculine and feminine for the purposes of
agreement, our concern is whether the same classification (the semantics of the feature system) is main-
tained through the system, or is not. In our illustrations above, we ask whether animacy is similarly dis-
tinguished for numeral and adjective, or not. It is a separate question how these values are assigned to the
nouns. As discussed at length in Corbett (1991: 7–69; 2005), gender always has a semantic core. Assignment
may be purely semantic, predominantly semantic (that is, there are groups of perhaps partially justifiable
exceptions), or it may be semantic and formal. The formal generalizations which supplement the semantic
generalization may be morphological or phonological.
9 Consider, for instance, a simplified and regularized version of English, in which the pronoun he was used
for male humans only, she for female humans only, and it for the residue. The only relative pronouns were
who for humans only and which for the residue. It is evident that the two candidate systems are not exactly,
canonically, the same. But they are equally clearly not distinct, in that the relative pronoun system is a
simple reduction of the personal pronoun system. In our terms, on the scale same-different, that counts as
practically the same. This is different from the Italian dialects with semantic overlap (B1 to B3) since here
one system is not a simple reduction of the other. All dim nouns are inanimate, but aug nouns can be either
animate or inanimate; all animate nouns are aug, but inanimate nouns are either aug or dim.
Art. 34, page 14 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
the purpose of Table 2, there must rather be different inventories of forms. Thinking back
to our “Italian dialects” we might find a different inventory of forms with the numeral
as compared to the adjective. If we do, we have one of the Type 3 systems, in which the
formal realization is different, i.e. A3, B3 or C3.
In operational terms, we may say that “having inventories of forms” implies that we
can find different forms appropriate for use for one and the same noun. These different
forms may realize different systems, as in Dialect C3. However, different forms do not in
themselves guarantee that we have more than one system. Consider, for example, the situ-
ation where different targets (such as numerals and adjectives) have different inventories
of forms, but the forms to be used from one inventory are predictable from the forms to
be used from the other. That is to say, given a particular noun, there is an appropriate
form of the numeral and an appropriate form of the adjective, which are phonologically
distinct but which realize the same value. That is, they are part of a consistent agreement
pattern.10 We would then say that we have a single system of grammatical meaning, real-
ized differently according to the particular target. This is the situation that is illustrated
in Dialects A2 and A3. In the clearest instances of Dialects A2 and A3, where different
targets show different inventories of forms, we could simply disregard one target (just as
we could in the simpler situation represented by Dialect A1). Concretely, in the sorts of
situation we represent as Dialects A2 and A3 we could look just at the numeral or just at
the adjective and infer the whole system. In such instances we would not say that there is
a numeral-gender-system and an adjective-gender-system.
Consider now the problem of “overlap”. Our canonical centre point, Dialect B2, is bal-
anced in a way that may make it unlikely as a real system, but an excellent point to
measure from, in that it is exactly at the mid-point between canonically one system and
canonically two systems. This is true in terms of semantics (grammatical meaning) and
in terms of form. In our example, there are two semantic distinctions but they are not
fully orthogonal. Instead of the potential four values there is an overlap, such that only
three values are found. We could treat this as two features, each with two values, and an
overlap which gives only three values in total, or else we could suggest one feature with
three values. Similarly the systems of forms are neither the same nor fully distinct. In
the abstract, there is no clear reason for choosing one alternative or the other. This is a
strong point of the approach: it forces us to be explicit about the reasons for our analytical
choices. What would legitimately lead us to one decision or the other? This is a question
that will be easier to tackle in the context of an actual system; we return to it in Section
3.2, when we have presented the facts about Mian.
3.1 Mian
The Ok language Mian (Trans New Guinea), spoken in Sandaun Province in Papua New
Guinea by a population of 1,700, has been analysed as combining a four-term gender sys-
tem with six verbal classifiers (Fedden 2011). The gender values are masculine, feminine,
neuter 1, and neuter 2. Examples (23) and (24) illustrate how the clitic article agrees in
gender with its noun and how the verb agrees in gender with subject and object.
“A set of agreement target forms is a consistent agreement pattern if and only if it induces the largest agree-
10
ment class, such that the agreement rules relating to this agreement class are simple and exceptionless.”
(Corbett 2012: 80 and discussion there).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 15 of 47
(24) Mian
ō naka=e a-têm’-Ø-o=be
3sg.f man(m)=article.sg.m 3sg.m.obj-see.pfv-realis-3sg.f.sbj=decl
‘she sees the man’
Agreement targets are articles, pronouns, and verbs (where the gender distinction is found
in the third person singular). Subject agreement is found on all finite verbs, and in addi-
tion there is object agreement but on seven verbs only (Fedden 2011: 265–267). Table 3
sets out the four genders based on the forms of the clitic article, which agrees in gender
with its controller. A characterization of gender assignment is also given. The other tar-
gets (pronouns and verbs) show different agreement forms but follow exactly the same
pattern.
These are the four controller genders, that is genders defined by the agreements required
by the controller. The corresponding agreements show an interesting pattern of syncre-
tism. All Mian genders are nonautonomous values (Zaliznjak 1973[2002]: 69–74), which
means that they have no agreement forms which are unique to them (and hence they are
non-canonical in this regard). So the number of gender distinctions observable on the
target (in other words, the number of target genders) is smaller, namely two: =e and =o
in the singular, and =i and =o in the plural.
While the gender markers appear on various targets, the classifiers appear only as
prefixes on the verb. They operate on an absolutive basis; most of them classify transi-
tive objects and for just one verb (‘fall’) they classify the intransitive subject. They are
restricted to occurring on about 40 verbs of object handling or movement, such as ‘give’,
‘take’, ‘throw’, and ‘fall’. The use of the classifier tob- ‘long object (SG)’ for fút ‘tobacco’ is
illustrated in example (25):
The set of verbs which take object agreement (within the gender system) and the set of
verbs which take a classifier do not intersect, so that we never meet a situation where a
single verb would have a classifier and object agreement. Table 4 sets out the classifiers
and the assignment rules.
Art. 34, page 16 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
classifier Assignment
Males; inanimates: plate, clothes, mosquito net, some bananas,
M-classifier dob-
some pandanus
F-classifier om- Females; inanimates: all nouns of neuter 2 gender
Inanimates: arrow, pen, tobacco leaf, bone, tongs, bush knife,
Long tob-
nail, belt
Covering gam- Inanimates: skin, palm bark, blanket
Bundle gol- Inanimates: string bag, bundles
Residue 11
ob- Animates: tortoises; rest of inanimates
Interestingly, the classifiers also make a number distinction; there are complexities
involved there that would take us too far afield; see Corbett, Fedden & Finkel (2017) for
those issues. For present purposes we note that the classifier system is orthogonal to num-
ber, just as the gender system is. It is also worth pointing out that if we had presented the
“classifier” system first, we could have described it as a gender system; it is the contrast
with the more gender-like system that has led to its being called a classifier system. We
would now suggest rather that it is a system of nominal classification that is overall less
canonical as a gender system than the “gender” system of Mian.
Does Mian have one or two systems? Let us apply our typology developed above. The
forms which are used in gender agreement and in the classifiers are completely different.
On the other hand, and more importantly, there is considerable overlap in the semantics
(grammatical meanings). In many cases, if we know the value of a noun in one system,
we can predict the value it has in the other. For example, from the perspective of gender,
all masculine nouns take the m-classifier. And all nouns of the neuter 2 gender take the
f-classifier. From the perspective of the classifiers, all nouns which take the long, cover-
ing, or bundle classifier have neuter 1 gender. Thus the degree of orthogonality of the
gender system and the classifier system in Mian is actually rather low. If we multiply
four genders with six classifiers we get 24 theoretical possibilities of which only nine are
attested. We see this in the system matrix (Table 5); the cells filled with examples are the
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 17 of 47
attested combinations. While we favour matrices in this paper, bipartite graphs offer an
equally good representation (as seen in the representation of Mali in Figure 1 in Section
4.2.2 below). The total number of nouns is indicated in each cell.11
When the data are laid out in this way, we see the interest and difficulty of Mian. How
then does our typology apply? As Table 5 shows, the semantics (grammatical meanings)
of the two possible systems overlap, but they do not coincide. In many instances, if nouns
were specified with the value of either the gender or the classifier, the other value would
follow. The forms, however, are quite distinct. We conclude that Mian has two systems,
but this is far from being a canonical case of two systems. In terms of our typology the
closest type is Type B3 (for which see example (21)).
Let us briefly address two additional reasons why we might want to say that we have two
separate systems in Mian. First, there are lexical items which take part in both systems:
some verbs mark the gender of the subject and also take classifiers. We might argue that
if a single verb marks two different things they belong to two different systems. Second,
the alignments are different. Gender in Mian operates on a nominative-accusative basis
(all verbs show suffixal agreement with S and A and a small subset shows prefixal agree-
ment with O), while the classifiers work on an ergative-absolutive basis (they classify S
or O). However, neither of these are as compelling reasons for assuming two systems as
one might think. In either case, if the semantics were the same we would never identify
two systems here; this would hold even if only a single part of speech was involved in the
marking, or if the alignment was different. This indicates that the orthogonality of gram-
matical meaning is more important than locus of marking or alignment in determining
whether we are dealing with one system or two.12
The residue classifier is in opposition to the other five classifiers, with its own set of nouns for which it
11
is appropriate. It is not a default classifier, for example similar to Mandarin ge, which can replace a more
specific classifier in many situations (Myers 2000; Zhang 2012: 46).
This can be seen in two ways. First, consider the more familiar problem of how languages like French are
12
analysed (see also Section 4.3 below); given the same system of grammatical meanings (masculine and
feminine), but very different forms (as between article and adjective), no-one proposes two different gender
systems, an “article gender” and an “adjective gender” system for such languages; this shows the accepted
primacy of grammatical meaning. Second, what linguists generally do here makes perfect sense: in terms of
the featural distinctions, the key is the number of distinctions necessary for controllers (nouns in our case),
in order to permit an adequate account of agreement. Formal differences of particular targets are a matter
of the morphology of (classes of) lexical items.
The point about “of the same type” is a reminder that we are considering systems of the gender/classifier
13
way of “scoring” the system of Mian would be to say that there are nine cells filled, from
which we deduct the theoretical minimum (six) and divide by the theoretically possible
maximum minus the minimum:
(cells filled − minimumcells
filled ) (9 − 6) 3
= = = .17
( possible cells − minimumcells
filled ) (24 − 6) 18
This gives us a measure between 0 (no orthogonality or canonically one system) and 1
(full orthogonality or canonically two systems). An orthogonality score higher than 0 and
lower than 1 tells us that the language belongs to Type B. The exact type within this range
(B1, B2, B3) is determined by the degree of overlap in form.
There are two points to take from this calculation of orthogonality. It is clear that
the two Mian candidate systems are far from being fully orthogonal. And equally, if we
imagine a comparable variant of Mian in which any additional filled cell were attested,
this variant would (all other things being equal) be closer to a Type C, canonically two
systems, than Mian is.
And yet, while adding any cell increases the degree of orthogonality, it seems clear that
not all cells are equal, something not recognized in our simple count. (In operational
terms, we could remove a cell, add a different one, and end up with a “more orthogo-
nal” situation.) Suppose we found a variant of Mian which was as in Table 5, except
that there were also examples of nouns which were Neuter 1 and took the F-classifier.
Intuitively, this makes relatively little difference. But if instead we found nouns
which were masculine, and took any classifier except the currently attested one (the
M-classifier), that would make the two systems orthogonal to a significantly greater
degree. This is because there is no longer a prediction between masculine gender and
the M-classifier. More generally, in terms of graphs, replacing a one-to-one mapping by
a one-to-many mapping (or a one-to-many mapping by a many-to-many mapping) sig-
nificantly increases the degree of orthogonality. Thus the more “many mappings” there
are between the two candidate systems, the clearer the evidence for two systems (the
closer we are to Type C).
Having discussed the issue of orthogonality, we move to the second point that we
highlighted, namely how we handle the genuinely intermediate types, as found in lan-
guages like Mian. The simplest answer is that the system of forms guides us. Obviously,
having the forms identical (in the canonical case, as in Type B1) pushes us to one sys-
tem, while if they are different, this pushes us to two systems (Type B3, as is indeed the
case in Mian).
There are two further factors here, coverage and optionality. For the first, Mian again
gives a clear illustration. By “coverage” we mean the degree to which the systems are
evidenced in the language. We can think of coverage in terms of controllers and in terms
of targets. If we look back to Table 5 (the Mian system matrix), we recognize that this
is a simplification in that cells are simply filled or not (in a sense, what is represented
and counted is noun types). Yet some cells represent significant numbers of nouns, while
others have very few (the cell which is the intersection of feminine and residue has just
two nouns denoting tortoises and one for scorpion). The two candidate systems would be
more fully orthogonal if this cell were better represented in terms of the number of nouns
involved. Often, when considering the evidence of grammars, we do not have this level of
detail. A second aspect of coverage is the possible targets. In terms of types we would look
for more types being represented, and that those should be core (e.g. verbs) rather than
more marginal (e.g. numerals). Our two candidate systems differ somewhat in this respect
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 19 of 47
in Mian, the first having several sorts of target, the second only verbs. Going on from that
we should also consider the number of lexical items: the greater the coverage in terms
of target lexical items, the more robust the (candidate) system. For the second system of
Mian recall that the targets are just about 40 verbs. (Note that these are not new criteria,
but rather they correspond to criteria 3 and 4 for canonical morphosyntactic features and
their values; Corbett 2012: 162–167.)
The second factor is whether the assignments are obligatory or optional. Heine (1982:
198) contrasts “fixed” and “free” gender: nouns are generally assigned to one gender
value, but there are languages where there are greater or lesser degrees of freedom to
assign nouns to more than one gender value, with some semantic effect (and this is even
more the case for some systems of classifiers). In Mian, we have nouns which require a
given gender value and a conflicting classifier value: the fact that this conflict is obligatory
(the values are fixed) carries more weight than if the conflicting assignments arose only
optionally (the values were free), and there was another option with no conflict.14 Here
being obligatory is canonical; compare criterion 5 for morphosyntactic features (Corbett
2012: 191–192).
4.1 Same semantics and same forms: Canonically one system (Type A1)
In our first type, when we look at our two (or more) candidate systems, we find that
the semantics are the same, and the formal realization is the same. There is obviously
a single system. In our hypothetical examples (14) to (22), if we compare what we
find on the numeral and what we find on the adjective, the distinctions made are the
same, and the forms realizing these distinctions are the same – all the hallmarks of a
canonical single system. We find numerous instances of real systems which come close
to our Type A1, some extremely close, but a perfect Type A1 proves rare. We consider
two instances: Lamnso and Kilivila. Other languages of Type A1 are Ngan’gityemerri
14 In our exemplar language Mian, it is interesting to note that the instances where there are two possible clas-
sifiers are more frequent than those where there are two possible gender values. There is a small number of
nouns which can have either masculine or feminine gender depending on the sex of the referent, e.g. éil(m)
‘boar’ vs. éil(f) ‘sow’. The classifier system allows variable classification for a much larger set of nouns. For
example, many inanimate nouns can appear with the bundle-classifier if any given referent has a handle
or rope attached to it, e.g. some gol-meki [banana 3sg.bdl.obj-hang_up] ‘Hang up the banana bunch (which
has some string attached to it)!’
Art. 34, page 20 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
(Southern Daly; Reid 1997), Ocaina (Witotoan; Fagua Rincón 2014), and Bora-Miraña
(Witotoan; Seifart 2005; 2007; 2009; forthcoming).
4.1.1 Lamnso
Since Type A1 is a system in which two (or more) types of target have identical forms and
functions, we are looking for one part of a classic alliterative agreement system. In such
a system, we find gender marked overtly on the noun and similarly on all targets (Cor-
bett 1991: 117–119). For our Type A1, we need only the second part of that definition;
still, it seems sensible to look in that linguistic area where we find systems approaching
alliterative agreement, and the Niger-Congo family is a promising place. In fact we find
numerous languages which come very close to representing Type A1. As a fine instance,
we take Lamnso, a language of the Grassfields branch of Southern Bantoid (McGarrity &
Botne 2001). Consider first these examples:
(27) Lamnso
a. ki-tam ki-moʔon
sg-elephant(iv) iv.sg-one
‘one elephant’
b. vi-tam vi-taar
pl-elephant(iv) iv.pl-three
‘three elephants’
These two examples suggest that if we compare the system of demonstratives (26) with
that of numerals (27), we find the same agreement forms (in bold). Of course, we need to
look more generally across the system, but these data would fit with our Type A1. (They
also show the same marker on the controller noun, an instance of alliterative agreement,
as discussed above.)
If we extend the comparison to possessives, we find similar but not totally identical
forms:
(28) Lamnso
a. ki-daŋ ke-v
sg-table(iv) iv.sg-3pl.poss
‘their table’
b. vi-daŋ ve-v
pl-table(iv) iv.pl-3pl.poss
‘their tables’
It would seem reasonable, however, on the basis of the evidence so far to suggest that we
are dealing with one system. Let us look at a more complete picture (based on McGarrity
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 21 of 47
pl 2 v- v- a- vi- -i a-
II sg 3 w- w- wu/yi vǝ- -i ø
V sg 9 y- y- yi- rǝ- ø ø
& Botne 2001: 57).15 Lamnso has six main genders, which we indicate I–VI, while giving
also the traditional Bantu numbering16 for singular and plural classes (Table 6):
As implied by Table 6, there is one set of gender distinctions, which goes across the dif-
ferent targets. Consider now the forms. If our two “candidate” systems are those of the
possessive and the relative, then we have a perfect instance of Type A1: the forms are
used in identical situations, and the actual forms are phonologically identical across the
two systems. If we continue with “two-by-two” comparisons, we find pairs that are very
similar but not identical; that is they are close to our Type A1. Of course, in such circum-
stances analysts would typically simply say that we have one system here, rather than six,
with various variations across the six agreement targets. Still, our aim is to be explicit, and
so while we believe that the normal view is indeed the right one, we wish to stress that
part of the system (two targets) form a perfect Type A1 in our typology, while the others
are close to Type A1 but do not meet its requirements completely.
4.1.2 Kilivila
A comparable system is found in Kilivila, an Austronesian language (of the Papuan Tip
Cluster), spoken on the Trobriand Islands. It is famous from Malinowski’s classic work
(1920) and from the detailed descriptions by Senft (1986; 1996); for discussion of its
origin see Senft (1993). Kilivila is analysed as having at least 177 classifiers (Senft 1996:
16). They occur with various targets, as seen in this example:
There are important further issues discussed by McGarrity & Botne (2001), which are outside our concerns
15
in this paper.
See Corbett (1991: 45–49) for discussion of this tradition. Table 6 makes clear that not all the distinctions
16
drawn in the singular are maintained in the plural. For the system to be fully canonical, gender would
cross-cut number perfectly, with all gender distinctions being maintained (Corbett 2012: 158), as we saw
in Italian (examples (1) to (4)). For a careful reanalysis of Wolof, a Niger-Congo language but of the North
Atlantic branch, for which the analytical tradition is similar, see Babou & Loporcaro (2016).
Art. 34, page 22 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
As seen in (29), the relevant forms are found prefixed to numerals and to certain adjec-
tives (some require the classifier, like -manabweta ‘beautiful’, some allow but do not
require it, some do not allow it). They are infixed to demonstratives (all but one of them)
and – though this is not illustrated in (29) – with one form of interrogatives (Senft 1996:
16–17). Example (29) is typical in that the form of the classifier, whether prefixed or
infixed, is identical. Most of the large number of classifiers have a single shape; a very few
change according to target (Gunter Senft, personal communications 3 and 18 May 2015).
In fact (29) illustrates a small wrinkle in the system, in that the demonstrative is normally
ma-...-na, but with this classifier it surfaces as mi-...-na (Lawton 1993: 152–153). Thus if
we compare across targets in this huge system, we almost always find identical forms of
the classifier, making Kilivila an almost perfect example of Type A1. Having seen a frag-
ment of the data, we note that while these distinctions have traditionally been described
as “classifiers” our typology handles them without difficulty. And there are doubts about
their analysis as classifiers. They occur with different targets, they are affixal, assignment
includes biological sex – all characteristics that some linguists would take as good indica-
tors of a gender system. A factor that has probably contributed to their being treated as
classifiers is that they are numerous; but as noted earlier the number of instances should
not be part of a definition. In our terms, the system is close to a canonical gender system
according to some of the criteria.
4.2.1 Latin
We can use Latin to illustrate this type. Latin assigns three gender values to its nouns,
based on semantic and morphological criteria. The same gender values are realized on
a variety of agreement targets. The forms require more attention; consider the following
examples:
(30) Latin
a. Seneca (Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, 17, 108)
ill-a anim-a bon-a
that-nom.sg.f spirit(f)-nom.sg good-nom.sg.f
‘that good spirit’
b. Cicero (De Oratore 1.222)
summ-um ill-ud bon-um
extreme-nom.sg.n that-nom.sg.n good(n)-nom.sg
‘that supreme good’
The important targets in (30) are the forms of the demonstrative ille ‘that’ on the one
hand and the bonus-type adjectives bonus ‘good’ and summus ‘extreme’ on the other hand.
In (30-a), with a feminine controller anima ‘spirit’, agreement is realized on the demon-
strative and the adjective by the same form (-a). In (30-b) however the controller bonum
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 23 of 47
Table 7: The forms of the adjective bonus ‘good’ (Greenough et al. 1903: 46).
Table 8: The forms of the distal demonstrative ille ‘that’ (Greenough et al. 1903: 66).
‘good’ (functioning as a noun) is neuter. In the neuter the demonstrative employs the form
(-ud), while the adjective summum ‘extreme’ uses -um. The formal overlap between the
demonstrative ille and bonus-type adjectives is considerable. In the following Tables 7 and
8, forms which are identical across the two tables appear in boldface.
These paradigms illustrate that the sets of forms are somewhat different, but that does
not mean that we are dealing with more than one system. Although the forms of the
demonstrative ille and the adjective bonus are distinct in some instances, they are predict-
able one from the other. The agreements -ud in illud ‘that.nom.sg.n’ and -um in bonum
‘good.nom.sg.n’ are phonologically different but realize the same values. They are part
of a consistent agreement pattern (Corbett 1991: 176–179).
In summary, Latin has a Type A2 system. We would not want to say that Latin has two
systems; it has a single gender system, with three values. The overlap of forms simply
means that gender is marked less canonically than in a Type A1 language, where the set
of forms is identical across agreement targets.
4.2.2 Mali
This language differs from Latin in that it has two candidate systems with different seman-
tic distinctions but where the smaller system is fully predictable from the larger one. Mali
is a Papuan language of the Baining family spoken by 2,200 speakers in New Britain Prov-
ince in Papua New Guinea (Stebbins 2005; 2011). The first candidate system, which Steb-
bins calls a noun class system, distinguishes masculine, feminine, count neutral, diminu-
tive, reduced, flat, excised, long and extended classes. Nouns referring to humans and
animals which display salient sexual dimorphism are allotted to the masculine and femi-
nine noun classes according to sex. The rest are distributed across all noun classes. Assign-
ment of the masculine, feminine, and count neutral noun classes is governed by complex
principles (Stebbins 2005: 92–108). Assignment of the remaining six noun classes is based
on a single criterion each (i.e. diminutive, reduced, flat, cut-off, long, or extended). The
second candidate system, which Stebbins calls a gender system, distinguishes masculine,
feminine, and neuter.
Art. 34, page 24 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
An example of both systems is given in (31). The cross-referencing pronoun ngē agrees
in neuter gender, while the numeral asēgēvēs agrees in the “flat” noun class (and singular
number) with the controller pepavēs ‘piece of paper’.
The candidate systems are marked on discrete subsets of targets. The gender system (the
three-way distinction of masculine, feminine, and neuter) is based on possessive pronouns
and pronouns cross-referencing core arguments within the predicate, of which there are
three series (A/SA present tense, A/SA past tense and O/SO). The second system (the nine-
way distinction) is realized on a larger number of targets. These are anaphoric pronouns,
adjectival modifiers, the numerals ‘one’, ‘two’, and ‘three’, indefinite and contrastive pro-
nouns and demonstratives.
The important point for our purposes is that the gender values can be fully predicted
from what Stebbins calls the noun class values. All nouns in the masculine or feminine
noun classes have masculine or feminine gender, respectively; and all nouns belonging to
the count neutral, diminutive, reduced, flat, excised, long, or extended noun class have
neuter gender.17 The relationship between genders and noun classes is shown in Figure 1
(Stebbins 2005: 113).
The assignment of nouns denoting humans to one of the size- and shape-based classes is limited to lexicali-
17
zations, for example levop-ini [woman-dim.sg] ‘old woman’, and ad-hoc formations whose function is to
make fun of the size of people. All of these are neuter so that full predictability from the larger to the smaller
system is preserved (Stebbins 2005: 91).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 25 of 47
In the Mali system there is a clear correspondence from one system to the other. While
the two candidate systems are not identical there is a many-to-one mapping between
them: one system subsumes the other. Mali has nine noun classes, and exactly nine cells
are filled in the matrix (Table 9).
There is complete predictability (in one direction) from one candidate system to the
other; following the discussion in Section 2 of what we count as “same”, this clearly
matches the extended definition of one system, since one candidate system reduces per-
fectly to the other. Thus we conclude that Mali has a single gender system with nine
values (though a less canonical single system than if there were no collapsing of values
between the two types of target). Given the behaviour of the first set of agreement targets
we can infer the behaviour of the second set of targets. The forms on the respective set
of targets are largely distinct, but there is some overlap in that for both sets of targets
masculine is marked by /ka/ and the masculine plural (for humans) is realized as /ta/.
For the complete set of forms, see Stebbins (2011: 44–46, 137). Given this partial overlap
of forms, we analyse Mali as a Type A2 language; it differs from Latin in that Mali has a
many-to-one mapping between the systems and one system is predictable from the other.
(32) French
le garçon est content
l-ə gaʁsõ ɛ kõtɑ̃
def-m.sg boy(m)[sg] is happy[m.sg]
‘the boy is happy’
(33) French
la femme est contente
l-a fam ɛ kõtɑ̃-t
def-f.sg woman(f)[sg] is happy-f.sg
‘the woman is happy’
Art. 34, page 26 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
The different targets consistently mark a single set of grammatical meanings. The agree-
ment markers on the definite article and the adjective are phonologically different, but they
realize the same values. There is more variety than these examples imply, since several dif-
ferent consonants appear finally on adjectives when feminine. And yet surely no one would
want to claim that French had two concurrent gender systems, one realized on the definite
article and one realized on the adjective. We conclude that we have a system of Type A3.
5.1 Different semantics and different forms: Canonically two systems (Type C3)
Our first Type C3 language that combines a gender system and a system of classifiers is
Ayoreo (Bertinetto 2009; Bertinetto & Ciucci 2014). Another example of a C3 language is
Michif, which has been discussed in various sources (Bakker & Papen 1997; Bakker 1997;
Corbett 2006: 269–270), and so is only reported briefly here.
5.1.1 Ayoreo
The Zamucoan language Ayoreo (Bertinetto 2009; Bertinetto & Ciucci 2014), spoken by
an estimated 4,500 people in Bolivia and Paraguay, has two candidate systems: a gender
system with a masculine vs. feminine contrast and a system of at least five classifiers.
These are analysed as possessive classifiers in the literature because they classify the pos-
sessed according to the functional relation it has to the possessor. Such classifiers are also
called relational classifiers (Lichtenberk 1983).
Gender assignment is according to semantic criteria for humans, but more opaque for
non-humans. There are some tendencies, for example vegetables tend to be feminine,
whereas animals are predominantly masculine. Many tools are masculine or feminine
depending on the sex that typically uses them. Agreement targets are adjectives (includ-
ing numerals) and demonstratives. An example of an adjective and a numeral agreeing in
gender with the head noun is (34).
Only nouns that are not inherently possessed occur with a classifier in a possessive construc-
tion, which means that not all nouns participate in the classifier system. A significant point
about Ayoreo is that the classifier agrees in gender with the noun. The most common classi-
fier forms (singular) are given in Table 10. Examples of classifiers are given in (35) and (36).
Table 10: Most common Ayoreo classifiers and their gender agreement (singular).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 27 of 47
(35) Ayoreo
g-aʨidi tamoko
3-cl:pet.m.sg dog(m)[sg]
‘his/her dog’ (Bertinetto & Ciucci 2014)
(36) Ayoreo
j-an̥e igide
1sg-cl:property.f.sg dress(f)[sg]
‘my dress’ (Bertinetto & Ciucci 2014)
The classifiers show agreement not only in gender, but also in number. In our examples,
the agreement forms on the classifiers are -i for masculine singular (35) and -e for femi-
nine singular (36), but there are additional complications with gender marking. The plu-
rals are -ode (masculine) and -(i)die (feminine). For plants there are two classifiers avail-
able: one for living plants and one for those that have been picked (as shown in Table 10).
Importantly, the two candidate systems are fully orthogonal. All combinations of gender
values and classifiers are attested (cf. Table 10), yielding an orthogonality score of 1, and
the forms are fully distinct as well, so we can analyse Ayoreo as a Type C3 language.
For a similar system in the Guaicuruan language Kadiwéu, see Sandalo (1997) and
Ciucci (2014: 25).
5.1.2 Michif
This is a mixed language of Canada, which had formed by the early nineteenth century in
the context of marriages of Cree speaking women and French speaking men (fur traders).
The linguistic marriage involved (broadly speaking) Cree verbs and French noun phrases.
And for our purposes, it unites an animate-inanimate Algonquian style gender system
with a masculine-feminine Indo-European style gender system (which co-occur within the
noun phrase). The key work on this language can be found in Bakker & Papen (1997) and
Bakker (1997). The most relevant data are presented in Corbett (2006: 269–270) and the
discussion of Michif as a combined gender system can be found in Corbett (2012: 176).
Other Type C3 languages with two gender-like systems are Paumarí (Chapman & Derby-
shire 1991; Aikhenvald 2010) and the related Kulina (Dienst 2014).
prefix yo- and the third person undergoer prefix a-” (Holton 2014: 94). Holton calls ya- a
“human numeral classifier”. It is derived from a part of the gender system, but its com-
bination with the undergoer prefix means that it is not a clear case. If it were, we would
have an instance of gender and classifiers overlapping in form, to a small extent.
i. association with part of speech (as just discussed, and equally possible for free
forms, as say a numeral classifier versus a possessive classifier);
ii. lexical specification (for example, some adjectives or some numerals might
mark one system and others a different system);
iii. word order (this could be similar to (12), except that any pre-nominal element,
irrespective of part of speech would mark one system and post-nominal modi-
fiers the other);
iv. syntactic (for instance, attributive adjectives might mark one system and pre-
dicative adjectives the other).
Each of these is a theoretically possible “setting”, and a full typology of nominal classifica-
tion will need to establish which of these can differentiate concurrent systems.
In terms of these possible settings, we have found no instance of Type C1. This is hardly
surprising. First, there are relatively few languages which have been claimed to have con-
current systems of any type. Second, Type C1 would be unexpected in functional terms: if
a language has two systems (whether of nominal classification or of some other type) we
would expect them to be formally differentiated. And third, the possible grammaticaliza-
tion routes are not obvious.
There is, however, a weaker type of setting, and with this we have an instance of Type
C1. This further type of setting is morphosyntactic: it involves just a part of the paradigm
of the target (since we are dealing with nominal classification, a distinction with the noun
itself is, of course, insufficient, as noted in Section 1.3). This seems a reasonable type of
setting. After all, if we had a language in which gender is differentiated in the nominative
but not in the oblique cases, we would accept this as a gender system (it would be cov-
ered by the accepted definitions of “agreement class”). But what if our concurrent systems
depended on a similarly limited part of the paradigm?
We have an instance of this type. It provides a positive argument for the canonical
approach, since it seems implausible, and yet it exists. Basing our typology on our canoni-
cal types forces us to look (yet) again at the fascinating issue of animacy in Slavonic
languages. The essentials are as follows: Slavonic languages typically have three-gender
systems, where assignment is based on semantics (male versus female) and morphology
(inflectional class), as discussed in Corbett (1991: 34–43). In addition, a newer distinction
has arisen, that of animacy. This is a genuine agreement category, not just a condition on
agreement (Corbett 2006: 176–205). The animacy distinction is much more closely tied
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 29 of 47
to semantics than the older three gender values: entities treated as grammatically animate
are those which live and move. Over time this distinction has become slightly less clear.
The range of animacy varies across the family; it is least important in the south-west of
the Slavonic area (Serbo-Croat) and most important in the north-east (Russian).18 We will
therefore concentrate on Russian. It fits here because: “On the one hand, the animacy dis-
tinction is severely limited in that it is found within just one case value; it is non-canonical
in this respect, and this is the part of its behaviour which makes it a sub-gender. On the
other hand, it is a central part of the system, affecting nouns, pronouns, almost all adjec-
tives (those that can occur in attributive function) and some numerals. It cross-cuts the
main gender values ...” (Corbett 2012: 162).
Let us compare the two candidate systems. Russian shows substantial agreement
evidence to justify postulating three gender values: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Now
consider the paradigm of a typical adjective in Table 11.
Russian thus distinguishes three gender values. The feminine (first in Table 11) is better
differentiated than the other two gender values. There is neutralization of gender values
in the plural. What is important for the issue at hand are the syncretisms in the accusa-
tive. In the masculine singular, and in the plural for all gender values, the alternative
patterns of syncretism are determined by animacy. The form of the accusative is identical
to the nominative for inanimates, as in (37), and identical to the genitive for animates,
as in (38):19
(37) Russian
ja viž-u star-yj dom
I see-1sg old-m.inan.sg.acc house(m.inan)[sg.acc]
‘I see an old house’
(38) Russian
ja viž-u star-ogo drug-a
I see-1sg old-m.anim.sg.acc friend(m.anim)-sg.acc
‘I see an old friend’
The animate form in (37) is not simply a genitive; we can see this by comparison with
(38) where we find a noun which has a form which is uniquely accusative. The agreeing
adjective, however, is specified as accusative, masculine, and animate: this specification
has no unique form, the form is identical to the genitive.
(39) Russian
ja viž-u star-ogo dedušk-u
I see-1sg old-m.anim.sg.acc grandfather(m.anim)-sg.acc
‘I see (my) old grandfather’
There are interesting differences in the various Slavonic languages, for which see Huntley (1980), Doleschal
18
(2014) and Krys´ko (2014). Animacy in Russian has aroused particular study; for the rise of animacy in
Russian see Krys´ko (1994), and for the suggestion that animacy in Slavonic can be traced back ultimately
to differential object marking see Eckhoff (2015). See Corbett (2012: 158–162) for a fuller definition, and
further references, especially for treating animacy as a sub-gender. The notion of sub-gender is a reaction to
the odd status of animacy in terms of its form: since it is much less well differentiated than the original three
gender values. But if we take the comparison away, that is if we only had animacy, we would recognize it
as a gender (see Dahl 2000: 582–583 and compare Nørgård-Sørensen 2014: 162 for discussion).
We illustrate from the masculine singular but examples like (37) and (38) can be given for all the gender
19
singular plural
feminine neuter masculine
nominative novaja
novyj novye
inanimate novoe
accusative novuju
animate
genitive novogo novyx
locative novom
novoj
dative novomu novym
instrumental novym novymi
Given this, we look at the relevant “setting”, which is the accusative case (in Table 11).
Within this morphosyntactic setting, we have forms which are relevant to gender and do
not distinguish animacy (novuju (f) and novoe (n)); and other forms which distinguish
animacy but not gender, since gender is not distinguished in the plural, namely novye
and novyx. Then we have those which distinguish animate from inanimate within the
masculine singular (novogo and novyj). Within the setting of the accusative, then, there is
an animate-inanimate distinction. However, all the forms used to realize this distinction
are required elsewhere in the system. Animacy depends on syncretisms, and all its forms
are shared.
As we noted, animacy cross-cuts the three gender values, giving six possibilities. (True,
there are fewer neuter animates than masculine and feminine animates, but there are
some, including čudovišče ‘monster’ and mlekopitajuščee ‘mammal’.) We do not analyse
Russian as having six gender values, rather we analyse it as having one gender system
with three values (the traditional genders) and a cross-cutting gender system (animacy)
with two values. There are no forms unique to animacy, and therefore we recognize
Russian as being an instance of Type C1 in our typology (“different semantics and same
form”), provided we restrict the “setting” to a part of the paradigm.
6.1 Partial overlap in the semantics and different forms (Type B3)
We have already discussed Mian (Section 3.1). There are several other examples of this
type. We begin with a strikingly clear example of a Type B3 language, Nanti, and then
discuss Pnar, which is interestingly different from both Mian and Nanti. Other Type B3
languages are Tariana (Arawakan; Aikhenvald 1994; 2003), Baniwa of Içana (Arawakan;
Aikhenvald 2007), Yagua (Peba-Yaguan; Payne 1986; 2007; Payne & Payne 1990), Innu
(Algonquian; Drapeau & Lambert-Brétière 2011), and Khasi (Austroasiatic; Rabel-Hey-
mann 1977; Temsen 2007).
6.1.1 Nanti
This language of the Kampan branch of the Arawakan family has 450 speakers in Peru
(Michael 2008). The candidate systems we are interested in are two gender systems, one
with an animate-inanimate contrast and the other with a masculine-feminine contrast.
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 31 of 47
animate inanimate
masculine + -
feminine + +
These systems are formally distinct but show an intriguing interaction. Nanti also has a set
of classifiers which are suffixed to a wide range of targets as is typical of many languages
of South America, but since our interest here is in the interaction of two candidate gender
systems, we will say no more about Nanti classifiers.
The first candidate system distinguishes animate from inanimate. Agreement targets are
a subset of adjectives, all numerals and quantifiers, and the existential verb. Assignment
is semantic. Nouns referring to entities capable of independent motion are animate. This
includes humans, animals, and celestial bodies, except stars. There is minimal “leakage”:
the nouns for soap, petrol, and one particular plant are grammatically animate.
The second candidate system distinguishes masculine from feminine. Agreement tar-
gets are the verb, possessed nouns, pronouns, demonstratives, and a very small subset
of adjectives. The sets of targets for the two candidate systems are not entirely disjoint.
A few dimensional adjectives, such as ‘large’ participate in both (imarane ‘large (m, an)’
vs. omarane ‘large (f, an)’ vs. omarate ‘large (f, inan)’; Michael 2008: 295–296, 312).
Humans and animals are assigned according to sex: males are masculine and females are
feminine. All inanimates are assigned feminine gender.
This is the same situation with slightly different values that we find in our hypothetical
Italian dialect of Type B3. There is a partial overlap in the systems of grammatical mean-
ing. All masculines are animate, whereas feminines can be either animate or inanimate;
thus we end up with a three-way distinction: masculine, feminine animate, and feminine
inanimate (see Table 12). The small matrix of 2x2 cells means that the attested combina-
tions are mid-way between canonically one system (two cells filled) and canonically two
systems (four cells filled). This gives us an orthogonality score of .5.
We therefore turn to the forms. In Nanti the forms are different. There are two sets of
agreement forms, i- ‘masculine’ vs. o- ‘feminine’ and -n ‘animate’ vs. -t ‘inanimate’; this
argues in favour of two systems. Therefore overall Nanti is closer to having two gender
systems than one. It is a clearer example of Type B3 (“partial overlap in the semantics and
different forms”) than Mian, discussed in Section 3.1, since it has a higher orthogonality
score than Mian (which has only .17).
For a similar system in the closely related language Matsigenka, see Van Epps (2010:
6–7) and O’Hagan & Michael (2015).
6.1.2 Mba
This language fits well here (it is one of the Mba (or Mbaic) languages, part of the Ubangian
subgroup of Adamawa-Ubangian, within Niger-Congo). The data have been presented
recently precisely in terms of the number of systems (Corbett 2012: 174–176), and so our
discussion can be brief. The data are taken from Tucker & Bryan 1966: 110, 114–123,
131–140; Pasch 1985: 69–71; 1986). Looking at attributive agreement, we find six gender
values. The pronouns (which also function optionally as an agreement marker) provide
Art. 34, page 32 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
three distinctions (male human, other animate, and inanimate, the latter indicated by the
lack of an overt form). Of the eighteen theoretically possible combinations we actually
find eleven, owing to the overlapping of the semantics of the two systems. The orthogo-
nality score is .42. Since the forms are distinct, this is another instance of a Type B3. In
Corbett (2012: 179) the choice was starkly “one system or two?”, and the judgement was
in favour of one system, with eleven values. Our current typology allows us to classify
such instances more delicately. Note again how our typology cuts across the old gender/
classifier divide, since with Mba the discussion concerns the number of gender systems.
6.1.3 Pnar
The Austroasiatic language Pnar is spoken by an estimated 400,000 speakers in the north-
eastern Indian state of Meghalaya (Ring 2015). As a first candidate system, it has a three-
term gender system with the values masculine, feminine, and neuter. In the plural all
gender contrasts are neutralized.20 Animates are assigned according to biological sex. To
date the assignment principles for inanimates have not been determined, but we find
inanimates in all three genders and Ring (2015: 99) reports that nouns referring to abstract
entities are consistently neuter. Gender is expressed in the free pronouns, and agreement is
obligatorily marked by a proclitic on demonstratives, numerals, and relative clauses. These
proclitics are homophonous with the free pronouns. The forms are given in Table 13.
Gender is overtly expressed on nouns which are specific, using the same proclitics, while
nonspecific nouns are unmarked. The verb is not an agreement target in Pnar. Agreement
of a demonstrative and a numeral is illustrated in (40) and (41), respectively.
The second candidate system in Pnar consists of two numeral classifiers, namely ŋut ‘(liv-
ing) human’ and tļli ‘non-human’, occurring with numerals greater than ‘one’. Classifiers
are free forms and are obligatory. An example is given in (42). The plural marker on the
noun, here khɔn ‘child’, is obligatory, whereas it is optional on the numeral.
A referee asks why we should not analyze a system like this as having four noun classes rather than three
20
genders. The point is that gender and number are orthogonal, which is reflected in their different availabil-
ity to nouns. Nouns normally have one gender value and all available number values (singular and plural
in Pnar).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 33 of 47
Classifiers
human non-human
masculine + +
Gender feminine + +
neuter – +
The Pnar gender and classifiers seem to be almost independent systems. Since the mascu-
line and feminine genders include both human and non-human nouns, we cannot predict
for either of these which classifier it takes. Likewise we cannot say which gender a noun
will belong to given its choice of classifier. Only for neuter nouns can we make a predic-
tion: they occur with the non-human classifier. The system matrix for Pnar is shown in
Table 14.
The systems of Pnar are not entirely distinct in their semantics but they are largely
orthogonal. The orthogonality score for Pnar is (5–3)/(6–3) = .67. We would want to say
therefore that Pnar has two systems. When we turn to the forms, these are quite distinct.
So Pnar is of Type B3. Like Mian, it is Type 3 in terms of form; in terms of semantics it is
a Type B, near to a Type C, while Mian is a Type B closer to a Type A.
The neighbouring language Khasi has a very similar system (Rabel-Heymann 1977;
Temsen 2007).
6.2 Partial overlap in the semantics and partial overlap in the forms (Type B2)
This is the system right in the middle of our canonical typology. The semantics of the two
candidate systems are neither identical nor fully distinct. Equally, the formal realizations
are neither identical nor fully distinct.
A fascinating example which fits here is Burmeso (of Western New Guinea), as described
by Donohue (2001). The relevant data have been discussed in some detail, for example in
Corbett (2012: 176–180). Verbs, belonging to one of two inflection classes (see below) and
operating on an ergative-absolutive basis for agreement, distinguish six gender values;21
the adjective distinguishes six different values. The matrix in Table 15 shows the possibili-
ties, which will provide a valuable comparison with Mian.
For each cell we give the relevant number of nouns found in Donohue’s representative word-
list.22 Before drawing the main conclusion, two notes are in order. First, while targets typically
mark one of the two systems, there are three agreement targets (‘one’, ‘all, many’, and ‘white’)
which inflect for both systems (they have the agreements normally found on verbs and those
found on adjectives). The second point is that the gender value given as gender v could be con-
sidered inquorate since it contains only two nouns, and the agreements are simply an irregular
combination: iv in the singular and vi in the plural. We stress that “inquorate” gender values
are not simply those with few members; they are also characterized by having agreements
We label these following Donohue; note that, as in more familiar systems, not all members of a given gender
21
includes all terms for arrows (Donohue 2001: 102) but only one, the generic term kasarar, is in the repre-
sentative word list.
Art. 34, page 34 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
agreement on adjective
masculine feminine neuter
masculine feminine neuter
inanimate inanimate animate
44,
5, 1, 2,
I plus all male – –
(4 birds) neck sea, wound
kin terms
agreement on verb
7, 2,
plus all 1, sago rinser
II – 4 –
female kin small goanna (lower), string
terms shapes
28, mainly 10, 1,
III 3 – –
inanimate inanimate goanna
9,
IV – – – – –
inanimate
2, banana,
V – – – – –
sago tree
VI – – 1, arrow 1, coconut – –
which are a combination of agreements required elsewhere in the system. This means that the
lexical items involved can be marked as lexical exceptions – there is no additional require-
ment in the agreement system, as there is if a gender value has a small number of nouns but
has unique agreements associated with it (Corbett 2012: 84–85). If we were to eliminate this
inquorate gender, the resulting matrix would show a greater degree of orthogonality of the
two systems. It is very helpful that Donohue provides this level of detail: an important factor
in assessing systems is “coverage”, including the numbers of nouns involved (discussed in
Section 3.2) but often we do not have sufficient data for such an assessment.
The matrix in Table 15 shows the interest of Burmeso. Of the theoretically possible 36
possibilities, just 16 are found. (It may be that a larger noun inventory would reveal more
combinations but the distribution within the matrix shows a clear pattern.) In Section
3.2 we put forward a method of “scoring”, based on the number of cells filled, minus the
theoretical minimum and divided by the theoretically possible maximum minus the mini-
mum. For Burmeso, the calculation would be (16–6)/(36–6) = .33. Recall that a score
of 0 indicates no orthogonality (canonically one system) and 1 indicates full orthogonal-
ity (canonically two systems). If we chose to eliminate the inquorate gender V, the score
would rise to (15–6)/(30–6)=.38. In terms of the semantics of the system, it is clear that
we are dealing with a partial overlap. We can compare this with Mian, where the com-
parable score was .17; this suggests that the two systems of Burmeso are closer to being
orthogonal than are those of Mian.
The other side of the question is the forms. As mentioned above, Burmeso has two
inflection classes of verbs (Donohue 2001: 100–102), which are of great typological
interest since they are closer to canonical than any other inflection classes yet described
(Corbett 2009). Unlike Mian, the systems of forms show some overlap. Donohue (2001:
105) points out “the strong resemblances between the forms of the gender suffixes and
the set II verbal class agreement prefixes”. Specifically, the prefixal markers used in the
second inflection class of verbs (Donohue’s “set ii”) for genders i and ii singular (namely
b- and n-) are found suffixally on agreeing adjectives (not all agree) for the masculine and
feminine gender values, namely -ab and -an. In addition, both sets also use an alveolar (t
or d); for details see Donohue (2001: 105–106, 109). Thus the means of realization for
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 35 of 47
the two candidate systems overlap, in part. We thus find an overlap in both semantics and
form, and hence the type to which Burmeso is closest is Type B2.
6.3 Partial overlap in the semantics and same forms (Type B1)
Like other Type B systems, B1 has two semantic distinctions which partially overlap.
However, in Type B1 there is only one set of forms. Such systems usually remain under
the radar, since they can be readily analysed as having a single system with simple assign-
ment rules. We present an example of this type and contrast it with a Type B3 example to
draw out the differences. Our data come from the Nakh-Dagestanian language Bagvalal,
spoken in southwestern Dagestan by approximately 1,500 speakers:
(44) Bagvalal
jaš j-iRi
girl f.sg-stop
‘the girl stopped’
(45) Bagvalal
ʕama b-iRi
donkey n.sg-stop
‘the donkey stopped’
Agreement provides evidence for three gender values. Assignment is fully semantic:
nouns denoting male humans are masculine; nouns denoting female humans are feminine;
remaining nouns are neuter. Thus the neuter comprises all non-humans (whether animate
or inanimate). We could reasonably leave the analysis here. However, our approach sug-
gests a further step. In terms of the semantics of the system, we have a human vs. nonhu-
man opposition and a male vs. female one. Yet the sex-based distinction operates only
for humans. In other words, the semantic oppositions would suggest four possibilities, of
which only three are reflected in the gender system.
It is important to note that we are not simply dealing with different boundaries for sex-
differentiability (Corbett 1991: 68). There is indeed cross-linguistic variation as to what
counts as being sex-differentiable. For example, in Russian, sex-differentiability operates
where it matters to humans, and involves domesticated animals and some where there is
a striking difference between the sexes (lev ‘lion’ vs. l´vica ‘lionness’). But this is a matter
of lexis and derivational morphology, not of gender. The relevant lexical items are present
in Bagvalal, which contrasts, for instance, zin ‘cow’ and musa ‘bull’. Bagvalal differs from
languages like Russian in that these nouns are both of neuter gender, along with inani-
mates like awal ‘house’ and beq ‘apricot’.
There is a little more evidence for a human vs. non-humans divide in Bagvalal; consider
the plurals of our previous examples:
(47) Bagvalal
jaš-i b-iRi-r
girl-pl hum.pl-stop-hum.pl
‘the girls stopped’
(48) Bagvalal
ʕama-bi r-iRi
donkey-pl n.pl-stop
‘the donkeys stopped’
We have followed Kibrik in glossing the combination b-stem-r as “human plural”. The
point is that in the plural we find syncretism of masculine and feminine, which produces
a human vs. non-human divide (also reflected in the gender resolution rules, Kibrik
2001: 475–478). However, the agreement forms belong to one set of markers (prefixal
in the singular, and prefixal and suffixal in the plural), with surprising syncretisms (b-
shared by neuter singular and human plural, and suffixal -r marking human plural as
opposed to prefixal r- indicating neuter plural). The adjectival forms are interestingly
different, but they too combine masculine and feminine in the plural (Kibrik 2001:
64–65). An analysis recognizing the two semantic oppositions is given in the system
matrix in Table 16.
This matrix clarifies what is going on. Our two putative features are not independently
necessary. Given the three gender values, we can predict the human versus nonhuman
value from them. A simpler analysis is therefore as in the following system matrix
(Table 17).
System matrices of this type imply an analysis with one system. We therefore treat
Bagvalal as having a single gender system, while recognizing that the semantic system
underlying it, that is, the gender assignment, involves two overlapping parts. To clarify, it
is useful to compare it with Nanti (Table 18), discussed in Section 6.1.
human non-human
masculine + –
feminine + –
neuter – +
masculine +
feminine +
neuter +
animate inanimate
masculine + –
feminine + +
Table 18: Nanti system matrix (forms differ, hence Type B3).
Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems Art. 34, page 37 of 47
Nanti has different formal means for realizing the masculine-feminine and the
animate-inanimate divide, and so we treat it as Type B3. There are four theoretical pos-
sibilities, of which only three are realized: there are no nouns which control both the
masculine and the inanimate agreement markers. There is a clear gap. Therefore we ana-
lyse Nanti as having two systems, partially overlapping. In Bagvalal there is no such gap.
The overlap is only in the semantics of assignment (the male-female distinction does not
extend to non-humans). Unlike in Nanti, there is no unused combination of markers, since
in Bagvalal the markers make up one system.
The canonical perspective brings out the interest of Type B1; while such instances are
usually treated as single systems (correctly we believe), there is one tradition which fore-
grounds the special semantic relations, namely Dravidian linguistics. Languages such as
Tamil have systems resembling that of Bagvalal. The tradition recognizes a first split into
rational and non-rational nouns (there are various terms for this divide) and a second-
ary split of the rationals into male and female (Asher 1985: 36–37; Corbett 1991: 8–9).
As with Bagvalal, there is morphological support for the split in that there are two plu-
ral forms (for humans and non-humans), and the same distinction naturally applies for
gender resolution (Corbett 1991: 269–270). For other Dravidian languages see Corbett
(1991: 10–11); Krishnamurti (2003: 205–213); Dubjanskij et al. (2013) and references in
all three.
Semantics
Same Partial overlap Different
A1: 1 system B1: 1 system C1: 2 systems
Same
Lamnso, Kilivila Bagvalal Russian
A2: 1 system B2: ? systems C2: 2 systems
Partial overlap
Form Latin, Mali Burmeso [not yet found]
B3: 2 systems
A3: 1 system C3: 2 systems
Different Mian, Nanti, Mba,
French Michif, Paumarí
Pnar
8 Discussion
We now take up the general issues that have arisen in our analysis of these significant
systems. We start from the more specific, and move to the more general.
values in addition to the difficult core case values. Since these other case values show no
differences in behaviour, it is less attractive to suggest there are two case systems, when
most values are shared between them. Indeed, the argument is simpler in systems with
larger inventories of values. (Compare Round & Corbett 2017 on tense-aspect-mood in
Kayardild.) Some of the very small systems are problematic; the long-standing discussion
as to whether gender and number should be treated as separate features in Cushitic lan-
guages, or treated as a single system, arises precisely because there are just three possibili-
ties in play (masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural); Corbett (2012: 224–233)
provides discussion and references, and claims that we do need to recognize gender and
number as distinct features in Cushitic.23
9 Conclusions
We have clarified the typology of nominal classification systems by concentrating on lan-
guages with concurrent systems. These are of great interest in their own right, since until
relatively recently they were believed impossible or at least very rare. These instances
bring to the fore some particularly tricky systems, and allow comparison within one and
the same language. The approach of canonical typology proved valuable here. Besides
previous work which allowed us to analyse systems as being closer to or more distant
from a canonical gender system, we developed a typology of concurrent systems of noun
classification, with nine types. Though the sample of languages with concurrent systems
and detailed description of them is relatively small, we found instances of almost all these
possible types, as well as others which were more or less close to them. By pulling apart
the different characteristics of these systems (rather than treating them as undifferenti-
ated wholes to be forced into the gender or classifier mould), we revealed more of the
rich diversity of these systems. Our approach offers the exciting prospect of a full typol-
ogy of nominal classification systems, measuring them all in a similar way from the same
baseline. Of course, it was right to treat French and Thai as different, but there is not a
great chasm between them, rather a plethora of languages sharing some characteristics
with one or other (or even both). All these belong in the same typological space. Who
would have thought, after Royen’s 1030 page study (1929), that there was still so much
to be explored?
23 While discussing small systems, we may note Muehlbauer (2012) on animacy and obviation in Plains Cree.
Art. 34, page 40 of 47 Fedden and Corbett: Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems
Abbreviations
1 = first person, 2 = second person, 3 = third person, I, II, III, IV, V, VI = genders I,
II, III, IV, V, VI, acc = accusative, anim = animate, aug = augmentative, cl = classi-
fier, cop = copula, decl= declarative, def = definite, dem = demonstrative, dim =
diminutive, dist = distal, f = feminine, gen = genitive, hum = human, inan = inani-
mate, m = masculine, med = medial verb, n = neuter, n1 = neuter 1, neg = negative,
nom = nominative, obj = object, pfv = perfective, pl = plural, poss = possessive,
prox = proximal, prs = present, pst = past, rpst = remote past, sbj = subject,
seq = sequential, sg = singular, ss = same subject
Additional Files
The additional files for this article can be found as follows:
• Additional file 1: Appendix. Appendix. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.177.s1
Acknowledgements
The support of the AHRC (Combining Gender and Classifiers in Natural Language, grant
AH/K003194/1 and Loss of Inflection, grant AH/N00163X/1) is gratefully acknowledged.
We wish to thank Matthew Baerman, Oliver Bond, Tim Feist, Tom Güldemann, Larry
Hyman, Ranko Matasović, Erich Round, and Paul Widmer for helpful comments and sug-
gestions. We are very grateful to the following colleagues for reading and commenting
on an earlier version of this article: Matthew Baerman, Pier Marco Bertinetto, Dunstan
Brown, Marina Chumakina, Luca Ciucci, Östen Dahl, Francesca Di Garbo, Elsa Gomez-
Imbert, Tim Feist, Raphael Finkel, Johanna Nichols, Tania Paciaroni, Erich Round, Gunter
Senft, Anna Thornton, and Bernhard Wälchli. We would also like to thank Gerald Gazdar,
Janet Wiles, and Donald Keedwell, with whom we discussed the issue of orthogonality.
We are particularly grateful to our Mian consultants Kasening Milimap and Liden Mili-
map. Versions of the paper were presented at the Workshop Gender and classifiers: areal
and genealogical perspectives, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Jan-
uary 2015; the Workshop on Canonical Typology, University of Hamburg, March 2015;
the conference Diversity linguistics: retrospect and prospect, Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, May 2015; the Workshop Morphological variation
and contact, University of Patras, June 2015; the conference Categories in Grammar – Cri-
teria and Limitation, Freie Universität Berlin, July 2015; the 48th Annual Meeting of the
Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), University of Leiden, September 2015; the Società
di Linguistica Italiana conference, University of Malta, September 2015; the Workshop
Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity, Stockholm University, November 2015;
the Workshop Gender and Classifiers, Diachronic and Synchronic Variation, University
of Surrey, January 2016; the International Morphology Meeting (IMM17), University of
Vienna, February 2016. We would like to thank the respective audiences for helpful com-
ments and discussion. We are grateful to Penny Everson and Lisa Mack for their help in
preparing the manuscript. We are joint authors and the order of names is not significant.
Competing Interests
The authors have no competing interests to declare.
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How to cite this article: Fedden, Sebastian and Greville G. Corbett. 2017. Gender and classifiers in concurrent systems:
Refining the typology of nominal classification. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2(1): 34. 1–47, DOI: https://doi.
org/10.5334/gjgl.177
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