An “evasive neuter”? A study on neuter singular indefinite pronouns with human reference in seventeenth–nineteenth century literary German

IF 0.7 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS Word Structure Pub Date : 2022-11-01 DOI:10.3366/word.2022.0212
Jürg Fleischer
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Abstract

In the area of agreement with noun phrases displaying reference problems, “evasive forms” may be used to avoid problematic choices. When referring to people of more than one or unknown social gender, masculine or feminine forms might be inappropriate. An “evasive construction” solves this problem by turning to a form that is neither masculine nor feminine. A well-known example is “singular they” in English (e.g. anyone can do it if they try hard enough). In literary New High German, neuter singular forms of indefinite pronouns could be used in similar contexts. This construction is largely obsolete in present-day Standard German but well attested until the nineteenth century and still current in some modern regional dialects. In this paper, the grammatical properties of this construction are discussed. It is shown that neuter gender is used for a specific semantic value, namely, to indicate more than one social gender simultaneously or to leave social gender explicitly open.
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一个“回避中性”?十七、十九世纪德语文学中性单数不定代词与人称代词研究
在与显示参考问题的名词短语一致的领域,“回避形式”可以用来避免有问题的选择。当提到一个以上或未知社会性别的人时,阳性或阴性形式可能不合适。“回避结构”通过转向一种既不男性化也不女性化的形式来解决这个问题。一个著名的例子是英语中的“单数they”(例如,只要足够努力,任何人都可以做到)。在新高地德语文学中,不定代词的中性单数形式可以在类似的语境中使用。这种结构在今天的标准德语中基本上已经过时,但直到19世纪才得到充分证明,并且在一些现代地区方言中仍然存在。本文讨论了这种结构的语法性质。研究表明,中性性别用于一个特定的语义值,即同时表示多个社会性别或明确开放社会性别。
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来源期刊
Word Structure
Word Structure LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS-
CiteScore
1.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
10
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