Zur Wahrnehmung des generischen Maskulinums in Erstgliedern von Komposita und maskuliner Epizöna

Abstract

Abstract Most German nouns that can be used to refer to people or groups of people have a masculine (e.g., Lehrer ‘male teacher’) and a derived feminine (e.g., Lehrerin ‘female teacher’) form. The grammatically masculine nouns are typically viewed as being ambiguous between a reading which can only be used to refer to men and a reading which can be used to refer to mixed-gender groups (the so-called “generic masculine“). The main question of the present article is whether this generalization also holds for the first elements of nominal compounds (e.g., Lehrer- in Lehrerzimmer ‘teachers’ room’) and for inherently masculine nouns from which no feminine form can be derived (e.g., Gast which is inherently masculine). The empirical data discussed suggest that generic masculine forms used as the first elements of N-N compounds as well as inherently masculine nouns are interpreted rather generically, i.e., not as referring to male individuals only.