Editing Grammatical gender (section)

==== 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"}}
|}