Original scientific paper

Again about number and gender

Branka Tafra ; Hrvatski studiji Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

The grammatical categories of gender and number have been written about extensively in Croatian and international linguistics, so one has the impression that everything about them is clear. They have been elaborated upon in every grammar so far because they are key categories, and they are part of the primary and secondary school curricula; therefore, it is believed that they are integrated into basic native- and foreign-language knowledge. However, surveys of philology students and of teachers of the Croatian language point to the fact that educated speakers of Croatian are not always certain when determining the gender and number of certain nouns. In this paper, the roots of these uncertainties are explored; definitions of the two categories in Croatian grammars are discussed; and criteria for the classification of nouns by number and gender and the model of their description are introduced.

Keywords

nouns; grammatical category; gender; number

Hrčak ID:

33701

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/33701

Publication date:

31.12.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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