ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-NAV-G03-009 · ATLAS 259

Gender

Grammatical gender classifies nouns and has formal consequences such as agreement on associated words.

Part of the subject path Morphology and Word Formation

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

G · Foundational concept R2 · Necessary foundation

Gender provides the basis for language-specific agreement classes and their consequences within a clause. Grammatical classification differs from biological sex and social identity.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

Grammatical gender assigns nouns to classes. The organisation becomes visible in the forms selected by expressions associated with a noun. A word for a piece of furniture and a word for a person may require the same agreement pattern despite the difference between their referents. Labels such as masculine and feminine therefore cannot simply be read as properties of things. The terminology of grammatical analysis also matters: typological agreement includes gender dependencies broadly, whereas some German grammatical descriptions treat the gender imposed by a noun on its dependent expressions as government. The Atlas makes that difference explicit. The decisive evidence is a distributional pattern, not an assumption that every class must correspond to a natural group of people or objects.

Movement of thought

1. A noun phrase is examined for recurring patterns of formal correspondence. 2. Nouns are grouped through the forms associated with them. 3. Further constructions test the proposed classification. 4. Grammatical assignment is separated from properties of the referents. 5. The chosen account of agreement or government is stated explicitly.

Scientific use case

A study can test the accompanying forms used with new or borrowed nouns and record grammatical assignment separately from semantic expectations. Prescriptive description and observed usage remain distinct dimensions.

Example

In the editorial German examples “dieser alte Tisch”, “diese alte Lampe” and “dieses alte Regal”, changing the noun changes its accompanying forms. The table, lamp and shelf could all be made from the same wood: material does not explain their gender distribution.

Counterexample

A language does not have grammatical gender merely because its vocabulary distinguishes kinds of people. Nor does a shared ending on several nouns establish a gender class by itself.

Distinction

Distinguish grammatical gender from sex, social gender, inflectional class and lexical meaning. The three German genders are not a universal inventory.

Effect on thought and perception

Gender reveals how grammar organises relations between expressions without thereby supplying a theory of the objects they denote.

Resonance

One noun guides the shape of its surrounding expressions. Their relationship becomes audible in several places at once.

Provenance

Parallel source review reconciled 2026-10-07; human specialist review not claimed.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Gender“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-NAV-G03-009. ATLAS 259, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-NAV-G03-009

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-NAV-G03-009

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.