Gender

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Gender can be either a grammatical or a natural category. As a natural category, gender is the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between '''male''' and '''female''' entities; as a grammatical category, gender is much more arbitrary and it is used for the analysis of word-classes displaying such contrasts as '''masculine''', '''feminine''' and '''neuter'''.  
 
Gender can be either a grammatical or a natural category. As a natural category, gender is the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between '''male''' and '''female''' entities; as a grammatical category, gender is much more arbitrary and it is used for the analysis of word-classes displaying such contrasts as '''masculine''', '''feminine''' and '''neuter'''.  
  
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The linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished from the biological and social notion of natural gender, although they interact closely in many languages. The grammatical (masculine) gender of the French word "danseur", for instance, seems to be motivated by the fact that it refers to a male dancer, in opposition to "danseuse" (feminine), which refers to a female dancer; on the other hand, the grammatical gender of the French word "sang" (=blood) is rather arbitrary, provided that blood is neither a male or a female entity (indeed, "sangre", which is the Spanish equivalent to "sang", is feminine).  
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The linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished from the biological and social notion of natural gender, although they interact closely in many languages. The grammatical (masculine) gender of the French word "danseur", for instance, is motivated by the fact that it refers to a male dancer, in opposition to "danseuse" (feminine), which refers to a female dancer; on the other hand, the grammatical gender of the French word "sang" (=blood) is rather arbitrary, provided that blood is neither a male or a female entity ("sangre", which is the Spanish equivalent to "sang", is feminine).  
  
 
In the UNL approach, grammatical gender, as a language-dependent feature, should be informed only in the UNL-NL dictionary; natural gender, on the other hand, should be represented through specific attributes in the UNL-ization process.
 
In the UNL approach, grammatical gender, as a language-dependent feature, should be informed only in the UNL-NL dictionary; natural gender, on the other hand, should be represented through specific attributes in the UNL-ization process.
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== Grammatical Gender ==
 
== Grammatical Gender ==
 
In the UNLarium framework, grammatical gender should be informed only for gender-inflective languages (such as French, Russian, Spanish, but not English), according to five different values:
 
In the UNLarium framework, grammatical gender should be informed only for gender-inflective languages (such as French, Russian, Spanish, but not English), according to five different values:
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*MCL = Masculine (“sang” (fr), “couleur” (fr), "message" (fr), etc.)
 
*MCL = Masculine (“sang” (fr), “couleur” (fr), "message" (fr), etc.)
 
*FEM = Feminine (“sangre” (es), “color” (es), "mensagem" (pt), etc.)
 
*FEM = Feminine (“sangre” (es), “color” (es), "mensagem" (pt), etc.)
 
*NEU = Neuter ("das Pfund" (de), "krzesło" (pl), etc.)
 
*NEU = Neuter ("das Pfund" (de), "krzesło" (pl), etc.)
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*MOF = Masculine or Feminine, i.e., common (motivated) gender (the lexical item has a single form, and the gender is actually assigned by the determiner, according to the sex of the referent (fr: “le pianiste” (man) or “la pianiste” (woman))
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*MOF = Common, i.e., masculine or feminine ("pianiste" (fr), "docteur" (fr), "professeur" (fr), etc)
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*MAF = Masculine and Feminine, i.e., unstable (arbitrary) gender (the gender is not clearly fixed by the language, such as in French “après-midi” (=afternoon), which may be used both in the masculine and in the feminine form, without any distinction: “un après-midi” or “une après-midi”)
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*MAF = Variable, i.e., not fixed by the language ("après-midi" (fr), "arbre" (fr), "Kind" (de), etc)
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In the last two  cases, the words may be classified both as masculine and feminine. The difference is that, in MOF, a change of gender implies a change of the natural gender of the reference ("un pianiste" = man, "une pianiste" = woman), whereas, in MAF, a change of gender does not change the reference ("un arbre" = "une arbre" = a tree).
  
 
== Natural Gender ==
 
== Natural Gender ==

Revision as of 13:31, 14 January 2010

Gender can be either a grammatical or a natural category. As a natural category, gender is the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between male and female entities; as a grammatical category, gender is much more arbitrary and it is used for the analysis of word-classes displaying such contrasts as masculine, feminine and neuter.

The linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished from the biological and social notion of natural gender, although they interact closely in many languages. The grammatical (masculine) gender of the French word "danseur", for instance, is motivated by the fact that it refers to a male dancer, in opposition to "danseuse" (feminine), which refers to a female dancer; on the other hand, the grammatical gender of the French word "sang" (=blood) is rather arbitrary, provided that blood is neither a male or a female entity ("sangre", which is the Spanish equivalent to "sang", is feminine).

In the UNL approach, grammatical gender, as a language-dependent feature, should be informed only in the UNL-NL dictionary; natural gender, on the other hand, should be represented through specific attributes in the UNL-ization process.

Grammatical Gender

In the UNLarium framework, grammatical gender should be informed only for gender-inflective languages (such as French, Russian, Spanish, but not English), according to five different values:

  • MCL = Masculine (“sang” (fr), “couleur” (fr), "message" (fr), etc.)
  • FEM = Feminine (“sangre” (es), “color” (es), "mensagem" (pt), etc.)
  • NEU = Neuter ("das Pfund" (de), "krzesło" (pl), etc.)
  • MOF = Common, i.e., masculine or feminine ("pianiste" (fr), "docteur" (fr), "professeur" (fr), etc)
  • MAF = Variable, i.e., not fixed by the language ("après-midi" (fr), "arbre" (fr), "Kind" (de), etc)

In the last two cases, the words may be classified both as masculine and feminine. The difference is that, in MOF, a change of gender implies a change of the natural gender of the reference ("un pianiste" = man, "une pianiste" = woman), whereas, in MAF, a change of gender does not change the reference ("un arbre" = "une arbre" = a tree).

Natural Gender

In UNL, grammatical gender is not represented, but natural gender is represented by attributes in case of animate referents whose gender is marked. The gender attributes are the following:

@male
male teacher = teacher.@male
@female
female teacher = teacher.@female
@neutral
default (optional) value: teacher = teacher or teacher.@neutral

Examples

English
teacher = teacher (no natural gender information)
female teacher = teacher.@female
French
un professeur = professeur (no natural gender information)
une enseignante = enseignant.@female
la femme = femme (gender lexicalized) or être humain.@female
la lune = lune (no natural gender, only grammatical gender)
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