Lingua et Linguistica
Vol. 1.1, 2007
ISBN 978-1-84753-625-9

The Predictability of Gender in Italian

Franca Ferrari-Bridgers
Southern Connecticut State University, USA

Abstract

This study argues that gender assignment in Italian is regulated by a discrete number of gender assignment rules. These rules are based on the combination of different semantic, lexical, morphological and phonological features that characterize the organization of the Italian nominal system. These rules prove to predict gender for approximately 98% of the nouns found in a database containing more than 4000 nouns. The large range of application of gender assignment rules runs against previous claims relative to the arbitrary nature of gender assignment in Italian.

pp.146-167

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