LINGUIST List 17.757

Mon Mar 13 2006

Qs: Resultatives; Neuter and Use for People

Editor for this issue: Jessica Boynton <jessicalinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Matthew Whelpton, Resultatives in English and Icelandic
        2.    Ana Tominc, Neuter and Its Use for People

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Message 1: Resultatives in English and Icelandic
Date: 13-Mar-2006
From: Matthew Whelpton <whelptonhi.is>
Subject: Resultatives in English and Icelandic


I am just starting a project comparing the resultative in English andIcelandic. I´d be grateful for input on the following:

1. Useful references on resultatives in the Nordic languages (includingIcelandic obviously!)

2. Recent seminal papers on theoretical analysis of resultatives (i.e. post2000), esp very recent

3. Is the data in the 1993 Levin book ''English Verb Classes andAlternations'' available in a tractable database form, i.e. queriable byalternation and verb? I´m assuming there are copyright issues.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Matthew.

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics                             Syntax

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Message 2: Neuter and Its Use for People
Date: 13-Mar-2006
From: Ana Tominc <ana_tomincyahoo.fr>
Subject: Neuter and Its Use for People


Dear all,

My name is Ana Tominc and I am a student of Cultural Studies at theUniversity of Primorska, Slovenia. I am currently preparing a B.A thesis ona very specific use of neuter (neutrum) in Slovenian language. As there isnot much literature about the topic concerned, I have decided to ask foryour opinion.

My problem is the following:

As Standard Slovenian has 3 genders, women and men are usually describedeither using masculine or feminine form, while neuter usually describesnon-human, non-living objects and abstract things. The latter is also usedfor describing people (like in German, for example), but such a use israrely unmarked (dete->baby, dekle->young, unmarried girl, fante ->young,unmarried boy). Apart from these uses of neuter, other nouns that aregrammatically neuter are used when we want to speak about a person in anegative way – and that is the problem that interests me. Being describedin this manner (using neuter instead of masculine or feminine), the personis degraded by the speaker to an object, to a non-human »thing«. AsSlovenian has a very ramified morphology, the verb form used in such casesis usually neuter, accommpanied by demonstrative pronouns this or that(both in neuter form as well).

Talking about people in this way sounds as if talking about bicycles,trees, boxes or other objects. It is my understanding that the speakerwants to point out his/her negative attitude towards the person he/she isspeaking about. Namely, these forms are usually used when referring todrunk people, to people for whom we believe don't behave in the »normal«,(socially) acceptable way, to people whose gender doesn't really matter (inspeaker's opinion, of course), or to small children for whom we think thatare irresponsible/not mature enough. Having no sexual identity in language(gender) and, as a consequence, not being a human (simbolically), positionsthe person we are talking about in such a way in a socially (andhierarchically) much lower position from the speaker.

I was wondering if such gender use could be found in other languages aswell, and what are the conditions of its use (I've heard that it may happenin French with ça est + personne and in Czech as well). Also, I would muchappreciate your theoreticall opinion about this problem. Thank you.

Ana Tominc

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis                             Pragmatics                             Typology