Original scientific paper

Gender of nouns with the grammatical morpheme -a for male persons

Tomislava Bošnjak-Botica ; Zagreb
Milvia Gulešić-Machata ; Zagreb

Abstract

Gender according to agreement and gender according to declension in the majority of nouns in the Croatian language correspond. However, Croatian linguists and lexicographers do not agree when it comes to the gender of nouns which in nominative singular end in -a, and for which gender according to agreement and gender according to declension do not correspond. There are four groups of such nouns: nouns denoting male persons (tata, papa), nouns denoting both male and female persons (varalica, pristaša), nouns denoting male names (Nikola, Ivica), and nouns denoting both male, female and family names (Matija, Jelaska). We can also speak of a fifth group, augmentatives of masculine gender nouns (stančina, muškarčina). These nouns according to their morphological structure, the nominative ending -a, belong to the \emph{e} declension, i.e.\ they are inflected like most feminine gender nouns. The article compares the gender determinants for the aforementioned nouns in grammar books and dictionaries of the Croatian language and demonstrates their variety. The differences largely stem from a different understanding of the category of
gender. Although different, the solutions within individual grammar books are implemented consistently, which cannot be said of dictionaries.\\

In this article the gender of the nouns mentioned is considered on the one hand from the viewpoint of Croatian as L1, and on the other hand from the viewpoint of Croatian as L2. Given the fact that there are different views regarding these nouns and that gender in standard Croatian language is assigned to them based on different criteria, which makes correct use difficult even for a native speaker, it is even less clear how these nouns should be regarded in the theory of Croatian as L2. The article offers a possible solution for a more adequate description of these nouns in the Croatian language: the authors propose a clearer definition of criteria for determining the gender of these nouns, offer a thesis on their double gender and discuss the necessary grammatical information that should be found next to these nouns in language books.

Keywords

nouns with morpheme -a; gender and sex; agreement; declension

Hrčak ID:

21774

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/21774

Publication date:

21.12.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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