LINGUIST List 14.2824

Fri Oct 17 2003

Books: Historical Ling, Indo-European: Ledo-Lemos

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. lincom.europa, Femininum Genus: Ledo-Lemos

Title: Femininum Genus
Subtitle: A Study on the Origins of the Indo-European Feminine Grammatical Gender
Series Title: LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics 21
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Lincom GmbH 
 www.lincom-europa.com, http://lincom.at		 
			
Author: F. J. Ledo-Lemos, Universidad de Salamanca 
				
Paperback: ISBN: ISBN3895864234, Pages: 240, Price: EUR 68
Comment: invoices in USD and GBP available
			
Abstract:

The grammatical feminine gender was developed by Indo-European in
relatively recent times, and was superimposed on an older system of
two genders (animate / inanimate). The virtual totality of
Indo-Europeanists would agree with this affirmation; but there is no
agreement between researchers over the factors which led to the
emergence of this new gender. By analyzing the diverse uses of the
suffix *-eH2-, Karl Brugmann managed to explain why the feminine
grammatical gender includes many words which are not semantically
feminine. Brugmann's perspective is still substantially correct, but,
in the exact terms in which he formulated this theory (more than a
hundred years ago), it cannot give a satisfactory explanation to three
important questions: (1) How did the diversity of uses of the suffix
*-(e)H2- originate? (2) How did some adjectives develop specific forms
for feminine agreement? (3) Why are the a-stems and the thematic
declension in complementary distribution? The different theories that
have been proposed since Brugmann can sometimes answer one or (at
best) two of these questions, but there is not a theory which can
resolve the three questions simultaneously. Such a theory is,
precisely, the object of the present study.(also see the LINCOM
webshop: lincom:at)

Lingfield(s): Historical Linguistics
			 
Language Family(ies): Indo-European

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)


 See this book announcement on our website: 
 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=7709.