The role of morphology in gender determination: evidence from Modern Greek

Abstract

This paper deals with gender and the role of morphology in determining the different gender values in a morphologically rich language like Greek. It provides a theoretical account of gender in generative grammar and argues in favor of an organization of grammar where an autonomous morphological module interacts, in several aspects, with syntax, a lexicon, and a feature theory that feeds the other modules. Most claims and proposals are exemplified with evidence taken from Modern Greek where data about gender have been sporadically mentioned in the past and never studied systematically. Following a feature-based approach, it is argued that gender is an intrinsic property of lexical entries, namely of noun stems and derivational affixes. Considering features to be attribute-value pairs, entries are distinguished into two types: those characterized by a fully specked gender feature, that is, by a feature containing an attribute with a specific value part; and those that bear an underspecified gender feature, that is, an attribute without a value. It is proposed that the latter acquire the missing value either by some feature co-occurrence specification rules relating co-occurring features of the same lexical entry, or by another device operating outside morphology (e.g. agreement in syntax). Finally, it is shown that, without being specific to a particular process, gender is a lexical feature that actively participates in word-formation processes.