Editing Grammatical gender (section)

== Manifestation ==
Grammatical gender can be realized as inflection and can be conditioned by other types of inflection, especially number inflection, where the singular-plural contrast can interact with gender inflection.

=== As inflection ===
The grammatical gender of a noun manifests itself in two principal ways: in the modifications that the noun itself undergoes, and in modifications of other related words ([[agreement (linguistics)|agreement]]).

====  As noun inflection ====
Grammatical gender manifests itself when words related to a noun like [[determiner]]s, [[pronoun]]s or [[adjective]]s change their form (''[[inflect]]'') according to the gender of noun they refer to (''agreement''). The [[parts of speech]] affected by gender agreement, the circumstances in which it occurs, and the way words are marked for gender vary between languages. Gender inflection may interact with other grammatical categories like [[grammatical number|number]] or [[grammatical case|case]]. In some languages the [[declension]] pattern followed by the noun itself will be different for different genders.

The gender of a noun may affect the modifications that the noun itself undergoes, particularly the way in which the noun [[inflection|inflects]] for [[grammatical number|number]] and [[grammatical case|case]]. For example, a language like [[Latin]], [[German language|German]] or [[Russian language|Russian]] has a number of different declension patterns, and which pattern a particular noun follows may be highly correlated with its gender.{{crossreference|&nbsp;(For some instances of this, see [[Latin declension]].)}} A concrete example is provided by the German word {{wikt-lang|de|See}}, which has two possible genders: when it is masculine (meaning "lake") its [[genitive]] singular form is {{lang|de|Sees}}, but when it is feminine (meaning "sea"), the genitive is {{lang|de|See}}, because feminine nouns do not take the genitive ''-s''.

Gender is sometimes reflected in other ways. In [[Welsh language|Welsh]], gender marking is mostly lost on nouns; however, Welsh has [[consonant mutation#Celtic languages|initial mutation]], where the first consonant of a word changes into another in certain conditions. Gender is one of the factors that can cause one form of mutation (soft mutation). For instance, the word {{wikt-lang|cy|merch}} "girl" changes into ''ferch'' after the [[definite article]]. This only occurs with feminine singular nouns: {{wikt-lang|cy|mab}} "son" remains unchanged. Adjectives are affected by gender in a similar way.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/pdf/welshgrammar_mutations.pdf |title=Y Treigladau – The Mutations |publisher=[[BBC]] |work=Learn Welsh |date=2002 |access-date=15 March 2014 |pages=1–2}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Soft initial mutation caused by gender in Welsh
|-
! align=left |
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | Default
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | After definite article
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | With adjective
|-
! scope="row" | Masculine singular
| {{lang|cy|mab}} || "son" || ''y'' {{lang|cy|mab}} || "the son" || {{lang|cy|y mab mawr}} || "the big son"
|-
! scope="row" | Feminine singular
| {{lang|cy|merch}} || "girl" || {{lang|cy|y '''f'''erch}} || "the girl" || {{lang|cy|y '''f'''erch '''f'''awr}} ||"the big girl"
|}

Additionally, in many languages, gender is often closely correlated with the basic unmodified form ([[lemma (morphology)|lemma]]) of the noun, and sometimes a noun can be modified to produce (for example) masculine and feminine words of similar meaning. {{crossreference|(See [[#Form-based morphological criteria|below]].)|printworthy=y}}

==== As agreement or concord ====
[[Agreement (linguistics)|Agreement]], or concord, is a grammatical process in which certain words change their form so that values of certain [[grammatical category|grammatical categories]] match those of related words. Gender is one of the categories which frequently require agreement. In this case, nouns may be considered the "triggers" of the process, because they have an inherent gender, whereas related words that change their form to match the gender of the noun can be considered the "target" of these changes.{{sfn|Franceschina|2005|p=72}}

These related words can be, depending on the language: [[determiner]]s, [[pronoun]]s, [[numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s, [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantifier]]s, [[possessive]]s, [[adjective]]s, past and passive [[participle]]s, [[verb]]s, [[adverbs]], [[complementizer]]s, and [[adposition]]s. Gender class may be marked on the noun itself, but can also be marked on other constituents in a noun phrase or sentence. If the noun is explicitly marked, both trigger and target may feature similar alternations.<ref name="dixon" />{{sfn|Franceschina|2005|p=72}}{{sfn|Franceschina|2005|p=78}}

As an example, we consider [[Spanish language|Spanish]], a language with two gender categories: "natural" vs "grammatical". "Natural" gender can be masculine or feminine,{{sfn|Bradley|2004|p=18}} while "grammatical" gender can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. This third, or "neuter" gender is reserved for abstract concepts derived from adjectives: such as {{lang|es|lo bueno}}, {{lang|es|lo malo}} ("that which is good/bad"). Natural gender refers to the biological sex of most animals and people, while grammatical gender refers to certain phonetic characteristics (the sounds at the end, or beginning) of a noun. Among other lexical items, the [[definite article]] changes its form according to this categorization. In the singular, the article is: {{wikt-lang|es|el}} (masculine), and {{wikt-lang|es|la}} (feminine).{{NoteTag|Exception: Feminine nouns beginning with stressed {{lang|es|a-}}, like {{lang|es|águila}} "eagle", also take the article {{lang|es|el}} despite their feminine gender ({{lang|es|el águila}} "the eagle"). This does not happen if the noun is preceded by an adjective ({{lang|es|la bella águila}} "the beautiful eagle"), or in the plural ({{lang|es|las aguilas}} "the eagles").}}{{sfn|Bradley|2004|p=27}} Thus, in "natural gender", nouns referring to sexed beings who are male beings carry the masculine article, and female beings the feminine article (agreement).<ref>These examples are based on an example in French from {{cite book |title=Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage |url= https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr |url-access=registration |date=1994 |publisher=Merriam-Webster Inc |isbn=0-87779-132-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr/page/474 474]}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+Example of natural gender in Spanish{{sfn|Bradley|2004|p=18}}
|-
! scope="col" | "Natural" gender !! scope="col" | Phrase
|-
| scope="row" | Masculine
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''el''' abuelo|the.MASC.SG grandfather|"the grandfather"}}
|-
| scope="row" | Feminine
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''la''' abuela|the.FEM.SG grandmother|"the grandmother"}}
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+Example of grammatical gender in Spanish<ref>{{cite book |last=López-Arias |first=Julio |title=Test Yourself: Spanish Grammar |date=1996 |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]] |isbn=0844223743 |page=85 |chapter=10}}</ref>
|-
! scope="col" | "Grammatical" gender !! scope="col" | Number !! scope="col" | Phrase
|-
| scope="row" rowspan=2 | Masculine
| scope="row" | Singular
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''el''' plato|the.MASC.SG dish|"the dish"}}
|-
| scope="row" | Plural
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''los''' platos|the.MASC.PL dishes|"the dishes"}}
|-
| scope="row" rowspan=2 | Feminine
| scope="row" | Singular
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''la''' guitarra|the.FEM.SG guitar|"the guitar"}}
|-
| scope="row" | Plural
| {{interlinear|lang=es|'''las''' guitarras|the.FEM.PL guitar|"the guitars"}}
|}

==== Gender inflection and number inflection ====
In some languages the gender is distinguished only in singular number but not in plural. In terms of linguistic [[markedness]], these languages neutralize the gender opposition in the plural, itself a marked category. So adjectives and pronouns have three forms in singular ({{abbr|e.g.|for example}} [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] {{wikt-lang|bg|червен}}, {{lang|bg|червена}}, {{lang|de|червено}} or German {{wikt-lang|de|roter}}, {{lang|de|rote}}, {{lang|de|rotes}}) but only one in plural (Bulgarian {{lang|bg|червени}}, German {{lang|de|rote}}) [all examples mean "red"]. As a consequence ''[[pluralia tantum]]'' nouns (lacking a singular form) cannot be assigned a gender. Example with Bulgarian: {{lang|bg|клещи}} ({{transliteration|bg|kleshti}}, "pincers"), {{lang|bg|гащи}} ({{transliteration|bg|gashti}}, "pants"), {{lang|bg|очила}} ({{transliteration|bg|ochila}}, "spectacles"), {{lang|bg|хриле}} ({{transliteration|bg|hrile}}, "gills"). {{NoteTag|The characteristic ending {{lang|bg|-а}} of {{lang|bg|очил'''а'''}} suggests a neuter noun, but there is no way to cross-check it and there are indeed a few masculine nouns using the same ending in their plural ({{lang|bg|крак'''а'''}} and {{lang|bg|рог'''а'''}} are plurals of masculine {{lang|bg|крак}} "leg" and {{lang|bg|рог}} "horn"). However, the endings {{lang|bg|-и}} and {{lang|bg|-е}} do not make any such indications because they are ambiguous themselves: although {{lang|bg|-и}} is the regular ending for masculine and feminine nouns, both are in fact used to form plurals of nouns of all three genders ({{abbr|e.g.|for example}} {{lang|bg|завод'''и'''}}, {{lang|bg|жен'''и'''}}, {{lang|bg|насеком'''и'''}} from masculine {{lang|bg|завод}} "factory", feminine {{lang|bg|жена}} "woman" and neuter {{lang|bg|насекомо}} "insect" or {{lang|bg|крал'''е'''}}, {{lang|bg|ръц'''е'''}}, {{lang|bg|колен'''е'''}} from masculine {{lang|bg|крал}} "king", feminine {{lang|bg|ръка}} "hand" and neuter {{lang|bg|коляно}} "knee").}}

Other languages, {{abbr|e.g.|for example}} [[Serbo-Croatian]], allow doubly marked forms both for number and gender. In these languages, each noun has a definite gender no matter the number. For example, {{lang|sh|d(j)eca}} "children" is feminine ''[[singularia tantum]]'' and {{lang|sh|vrata}} "door" is neuter ''pluralia tantum''.

=== On pronouns ===
Pronouns may [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] in gender with the noun or noun phrase to which they refer (their [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]]). Sometimes, however, there is no antecedent—the referent of the pronoun is deduced indirectly from the context: this is found with personal pronouns, as well as with indefinite and dummy pronouns.

==== Personal pronouns ====
With personal pronouns, the gender of the pronoun is likely to agree with the ''natural gender'' of the referent. Indeed, in most European languages, personal pronouns are gendered; for example English (the [[English personal pronouns|personal pronouns]] ''he'', ''she'' and ''it'' are used depending on whether the referent is male, female, or inanimate or non-human; this is in spite of the fact that English does not generally have grammatical gender). A parallel example is provided by the object suffixes of verbs in [[Modern Standard Arabic|Arabic]], which correspond to object pronouns, and which also inflect for gender in the [[grammatical person|second person]] (though not in the first):
* "I love you", said to a male: ''{{transliteration|ar|uḥibbuk'''a'''}}'' ({{lang|ar|أُحِبُّكَ}})
* "I love you", said to a female: ''{{transliteration|ar|uḥibbuk'''i'''}}'' ({{lang|ar|أُحِبُّكِ}})

Not all languages have gendered pronouns. In languages that never had grammatical gender, there is normally just one word for "he" and "she", like {{wikt-lang|id|dia}} in [[Malay language|Malay]] and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], {{wikt-lang|hu|ő}} in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] and {{wikt-lang|tr|o}} in [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. These languages might only have different pronouns and inflections in the [[grammatical person|third person]] to differentiate between people and inanimate objects, but even this distinction is often absent. In written [[Finnish grammar|Finnish]], for example, {{wikt-lang|fi|hän}} is used for "he" and "she" and {{wikt-lang|fi|se}} for "it", but in the colloquial language {{lang|fi|se}} is usually used for "he" and "she" as well.{{crossreference|&nbsp;(For more on these different types of pronoun, see [[Third-person pronoun]].)}}

Issues may arise in languages with gender-specific pronouns in cases when the gender of the referent is unknown or not specified; this is a matter that arises frequently in relation to [[gender-neutral language]], as with English usage of [[Singular they|Singular ''they'']].

In some cases, the gender of a pronoun is not marked in the form of the pronoun itself, but is marked on other words by way of agreement. Thus the French word for 'I' is {{wikt-lang|fr|je}}, regardless of who is speaking; but this word becomes feminine or masculine depending on the sex of the speaker, as may be reflected through adjective agreement: {{lang|fr|je suis fort'''e'''}} ('I am strong', spoken/written by a female); {{lang|fr|je suis fort}} (the same but by a male).

In [[null-subject language]]s (and in some [[Ellipsis (grammar)|elliptical]] expressions in other languages), such agreement may take place even though the pronoun does not in fact appear. For example, in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]:
* '[I am] very grateful', said/written by a male: {{lang|pt|muito obrigad'''o'''}}
* the same, by a female: {{lang|pt|muito obrigad'''a'''}}
The two sentences above mean literally 'much obliged'; the adjective agrees with the natural gender of the speaker, that is, with the gender of the first person pronoun which does not appear explicitly here.

==== Indefinite and dummy pronouns ====
{{anchor|Indefinite pronouns|Dummy pronouns}}
A [[dummy pronoun]] is a type of pronoun used when a particular verb argument (such as the [[subject (grammar)|subject]]) is nonexistent, but when a reference to the argument is nevertheless syntactically required. They occur mostly in non-[[pro-drop language]]s, such as English (because in pro-drop languages the position of the argument can be left empty). Examples in English are the uses of ''it'' in "It's raining" and "It's nice to relax."

When a language has gendered pronouns, the use of a particular word as a dummy pronoun may involve the selection of a particular gender, even though there is no noun to agree with. In languages with a neuter gender, a neuter pronoun is usually used, as in German {{lang|de|es regnet}} ("it rains, it's raining"), where {{wikt-lang|de|es}} is the neuter third person singular pronoun. (English behaves similarly, because the word ''it'' comes from the [[Old English]] neuter gender.) In languages with only masculine and feminine genders, the dummy pronoun may be the masculine third person singular, as in the French for "it's raining": {{lang|fr|il pleut}} (where {{wikt-lang|fr|il}} means "he", or "it" when referring to masculine nouns); although some languages use the feminine, as in the equivalent [[Welsh language|Welsh]] sentence: {{lang|cy|mae hi'n bwrw glaw}} (where the dummy pronoun is {{wikt-lang|cy|hi}}, which means "she", or "it" when referring to feminine nouns).

A similar, apparently arbitrary gender assignment may need to be made in the case of [[indefinite pronoun]]s, where the referent is generally unknown. In this case the question is usually not which pronoun to use, but which gender to assign a given pronoun to (for such purposes as adjective agreement). For example, the French pronouns {{wikt-lang|fr|quelqu'un}} ("someone"), {{wikt-lang|fr|personne}} ("no-one") and {{wikt-lang|fr|quelque chose}} ("something") are all treated as masculine—this is in spite of the fact that the last two correspond to feminine nouns ({{lang|fr|personne}} meaning "person", and {{wikt-lang|fr|chose}} meaning "thing").<ref>{{cite book |first=Monique |last=L'Huillier |title=Advanced French Grammar |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=1999 |pages=401}}</ref> {{crossreference|(For other situations in which such a "default" gender assignment may be required, see [[#Contextual determination of gender|below]].)|printworthy=y}}

=== Grammatical vs. natural gender <span id="Natural gender"></span> ===
The ''natural gender'' of a noun, pronoun or noun phrase is a gender to which it would be expected to belong based on relevant attributes of its referent. Although grammatical gender can coincide with natural gender, it does not need to.

==== Grammatical gender can match natural gender ====
This usually means masculine or feminine, depending on the referent's sex. For example, in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], {{wikt-lang|es|mujer}} ("woman") is feminine whereas {{wikt-lang|es|hombre}} ("man") is masculine; these attributions occur solely due to the semantically inherent gender character of each noun.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

==== Grammatical gender need not match natural gender ====
{{unreferenced section|find=grammatical gender|find2=different from natural gender|date=June 2023}}
The ''grammatical gender'' of a noun does not always coincide with its natural gender. An example of this is the [[German language|German]] word {{wikt-lang|de|Mädchen}} ("girl"); this is derived from {{wikt-lang|de|Magd}} ("maiden"), [[Germanic Umlaut|umlaut]]ed to {{lang|de|Mäd-}} with the [[diminutive suffix]] {{lang|de|-chen}}, and this suffix always makes the noun grammatically neuter. Hence the grammatical gender of {{lang|de|Mädchen}} is neuter, although its natural gender is feminine (because it refers to a female person).

Other examples include:
* [[Old English]] {{wikt-lang|ang|wīf}} (neuter) and {{wikt-lang|ang|wīfmann}} (masculine), meaning "woman"
* [[German language|German]] {{wikt-lang|de|Weib}} (neuter), meaning "woman" (the word is now pejorative and generally replaced with {{lang|de|die Frau}}, originally 'lady', feminine of obsolete {{lang|de|der [[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/frawjô|Fro]]}}, meaning 'lord')
* [[Irish language|Irish]] {{lang|ga|cailín}} (masculine) meaning "girl", and {{lang|ga|stail}} (feminine) meaning "stallion"
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|mulherão}} (masculine), meaning "voluptuous woman"
* [[Scottish Gaelic language|Scottish Gaelic]] {{lang|gd|boireannach}} (masculine), meaning "woman"
* [[Slovene language|Slovenian]] {{lang|sl|dekle}} (neuter), meaning "girl"
* [[Polish language|Polish]] {{lang|pl|babsztyl}} (masculine), meaning "unpleasant (usually old and ugly) woman"
*[[Czech language|Czech]] {{lang|cs|děvče}} (neuter), meaning "a young girl"
Normally, such exceptions are a small minority.

When a noun with conflicting natural and grammatical gender is the antecedent of a pronoun, it may not be clear which gender of pronoun to choose. There is a certain tendency to keep the grammatical gender when a close back-reference is made, but to switch to natural gender when the reference is further away. For example, in German, the sentences "The girl has come home from school. She is now doing her homework" can be translated in two ways:
* {{lang|de|Das <u>Mädchen</u> (n.) ist aus der Schule gekommen. '''Es''' (n.) macht jetzt '''seine''' (n.) Hausaufgaben.}}
* {{lang|de|Das <u>Mädchen</u> (n.) ist aus der Schule gekommen. '''Sie''' (f.) macht jetzt '''ihre''' (f.) Hausaufgaben.}}
Though the second sentence may appear grammatically incorrect ([[Synesis|constructio ad sensum]]), it is common in speech. With one or more intervening sentences, the second form becomes even more likely. However, a switch to the natural gender is never possible with articles and ''attributive'' pronouns or adjectives. Thus it can never be correct to say {{lang|de|*eine Mädchen}} ("a girl" – with female indefinite article) or {{lang|de|*diese kleine Mädchen}} ("this little girl" – with female demonstrative pronoun and adjective).

This phenomenon is quite popular in Slavic languages: for example Polish {{wikt-lang|pl|kreatura}} (deprecative "creature") is feminine but can be used to refer to both man (masculine gender), woman (feminine gender), child (neuter gender) or even animate nouns (e.g. a dog being masculine). Similarly with other deprecatory nouns as {{wikt-lang|pl|pierdoła}}, {{wikt-lang|pl|ciapa}}, {{wikt-lang|pl|łamaga}}, {{wikt-lang|pl|łajza}}, {{wikt-lang|pl|niezdara}} ("wuss, klutz"); {{wikt-lang|pl|niemowa}} ("mute") can be used deprecatively as described previously, and then can be used for verbs marked for the male and female genders.

==== Gender contrasts on human versus sentient referents ====
In the case of languages which have masculine and feminine genders, the relation between biological sex and grammatical gender tends to be less exact in the case of animals than in the case of people. In Spanish, for instance, a [[cheetah]] is always {{lang|es|un guepardo}} (masculine) and a [[zebra]] is always {{lang|es|una cebra}} (feminine), regardless of their biological sex. In Russian a [[rat]] and a [[butterfly]] are always {{transliteration|ru|krysa}} ({{lang|ru|крыса}}) and {{transliteration|ru|babochka}} ({{lang|ru|бабочка}}) (feminine). In French, a giraffe is always {{lang|fr|une girafe}}, whereas an elephant is always {{lang|fr|un éléphant}}. To specify the sex of an animal, an adjective may be added, as in {{lang|es|un guepardo hembra}} ("a female cheetah"), or {{lang|es|una cebra macho}} ("a male zebra"). [[Suppletion|Different names]] for the male and the female of a species are more frequent for common pets or farm animals, {{abbr|e.g.|for example}} English ''cow'' and ''bull'', Spanish {{lang|es|vaca}} "cow" and {{lang|es|toro}} "bull", Russian ''{{lang|ru|баран}}'' ({{transliteration|ru|baran}}) "ram" and ''{{lang|ru|овца}}'' ({{transliteration|ru|ovtsa}}) "ewe".

As regards the pronouns used to refer to animals, these generally agree in gender with the nouns denoting those animals, rather than the animals' sex (natural gender). In a language like English, which does not assign grammatical gender to nouns, the pronoun used for referring to objects (''it'') is often used for animals also. However, if the sex of the animal is known, and particularly in the case of companion animals, the gendered pronouns (''he'' and ''she'') may be used as they would be for a human.

In [[Polish language|Polish]], a few general words such as {{lang|pl|zwierzę}} ("animal") or {{lang|pl|bydlę}} ("animal, one head of cattle") are neuter, but most species names are masculine or feminine. When the sex of an animal is known, it will normally be referred to using gendered pronouns consistent with its sex; otherwise the pronouns will correspond to the gender of the noun denoting its species.

=== Syntactic structure ===
There are multiple theoretical approaches to the position and structure of gender in syntactic structures.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kramer |first=R. |date=2016 |title=The location of gender features in the syntax |work=[[Language and Linguistics Compass]] |volume=10 |number=11 |pages=661–677 |doi=10.1111/lnc3.12226}}</ref>