mersiowsky - 9-27-2023 at 07:14 PM
The grammatical gender of nouns functions in a semantic core area, which includes, amongst other things, personal terms, which express differences in
the gender of the speakers. In Sorbian, as well as congruence, flexional endings, derivatives, and the meanings of words for personal terms provide
linguistic indicators of gender affiliation and gender differences. In this context, Helmut Faßke, differentiates in his Morphologie
(Morphology) (Bautzen 1981) between three types using a structuralist basis according to the criterium of the relevant contrasting relationships
(asymetrical, equipollent, neutralized). This list is further extended by semantic criteria: in addition, gender neutral, singular group terms,
defective verbs or nouns, are excluded (from which no counter-gender personal terms are derived on lexical or cultural grounds); also mostly
perjorative personal terms with emotional connotations are excluded (where, sometimes, based on information in dictionaries, a variation exists, which
derives from the gender of the speaker, and therefore has a function similar to a common gender) and – as a sub-group of the latter – there are a few
nouns, whose derivation provides grounds for interpreting them as being feminine by gender. This article considers both Lower and Upper Sorbian.