Editing Grammatical gender (section)

=== 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''.