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Lecture II, 2

David Langslow

in Jacob Wackernagel, Lectures on Syntax: With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, and Germanic

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the ... More

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2,the noun is looked at, to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent, to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g., Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.Less

Analysis of Chapter Two (478)

Solomon I. Sara

in Sibawayh on ?imalah (Inclination): Text, Translation, Notes and Analysis

This chapter notes Sībawayh's statements about the state of inclination among the Arabic speakers, and indicates the contexts where inclination takes place, listing the relevant rules given by ... More

This chapter notes Sībawayh's statements about the state of inclination among the Arabic speakers, and indicates the contexts where inclination takes place, listing the relevant rules given by Sībawayh. It also discusses the feminine marker [h] and its potential and actual hiddenness in pronunciation. The hiddenness of the [h] creates shorter sequences and consequently more immediate contexts for inclination when there is an [i] before the [A]. The feminine marker [h] can be hidden, in which case the final [A] is inclined in the context of a preceding ‘break [i]’ and the resulting form resembles another form on the surface, the dual.Less

Forming the Male and Female Body

Melila Hellner-Eshed

in Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar

This chapter explores the emanation of the divine masculine and feminine bodies, and the sources of the idraic myth of those bodies.

A view from the North: Genders and classifiers in Arawak languages of north-west Amazonia

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

in Genders and Classifiers: A Cross-Linguistic Typology

This chapter addresses the issue of coexistence of noun categorization devices within one language. Genders and other noun categorization devices—be they numeral classifiers, or other classifiers—are ... More

This chapter addresses the issue of coexistence of noun categorization devices within one language. Genders and other noun categorization devices—be they numeral classifiers, or other classifiers—are generally thought of as being relatively independent from one another. Co-existing and overlapping systems of genders and classifiers are cross-linguistically uncommon. The chapter shows that this is a feature of some Arawak languages from north-west Amazonia, two genders—feminine and non-feminine—are obligatorily marked on verbs and nouns, and demonstratives and other modifiers within a noun phrase. Classifiers used on number words, and in a variety of other contexts, categorize the noun in terms of its physical properties, and distinguish gender. Gender is thus integrated within the system of classifiers. Gender markers may co-occur with classifiers in one word. The chapter concludes that gender distinctions and gender markers are uniform across the Arawak language family, and can be reconstructed for the proto-language. The chapter proposes that classifiers may have developed separately in each subgroup within the family.Less

Round women and long men: physical properties in Linguistic Gender

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

in How Gender Shapes the World

The physical features of a referent—their shape, and size—may play a role in the choice of the Linguistic Gender, and correlate with features of their Natural and Social Genders. Recurrent ... More

The physical features of a referent—their shape, and size—may play a role in the choice of the Linguistic Gender, and correlate with features of their Natural and Social Genders. Recurrent correlations between shape, size, and Linguistic Gender choice are a feature of Cantabrian and a few other varieties of Spanish, of languages of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, and many languages in East Africa. Further semantic correlates of gender assignment include the roles of referents in myths, and salient properties correlating with the societal status of Social Gender (especially relevant for Linguistic Gender choice, and Linguistic Gender switches, for humans). Linguistic Gender choice for inanimates may be dictated by specific features associated with the idea of femininity or masculinity. Value and importance can be assigned to nouns of masculine Linguistic Gender.Less

Linguistic Gender and its expression

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

in How Gender Shapes the World

Many languages of the world have a gender system in their grammar. There are two genders in French, three in German, four in Dyirbal (from North Queensland), more elsewhere. We seldom find an exact ... More

Many languages of the world have a gender system in their grammar. There are two genders in French, three in German, four in Dyirbal (from North Queensland), more elsewhere. We seldom find an exact correspondence between masculine/feminine and male/female sex. In German most nouns referring to females are feminine but Mädchen ‘girl’ is in neuter gender (because it contains the diminutive suffix -chen which is always neuter). Gender choice (or assignment) can be more or less semantically transparent or opaque. There is always some semantic basis to Linguistic Gender choice but languages vary as to how much semantic choice there is. Gender assignment can also involve morphological and phonological features of nouns. Gender may be distinguished in personal pronouns only, as in English, or through derivational affixes (as in many Uralic languages). This chapter focuses on a cross-linguistic typology of gender, its meanings, and its expression.Less

Manly women and womanly men: the effects of gender reversal

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

in How Gender Shapes the World

This chapter explores the options of using the opposite Linguistic Gender in a variety of languages. Changes in Linguistic Gender assignment to humans may reflect role reversals in traditional ... More

This chapter explores the options of using the opposite Linguistic Gender in a variety of languages. Changes in Linguistic Gender assignment to humans may reflect role reversals in traditional jocular relationships. Gender reversals may be offensive, or carry overtones of praise, or may imply endearment and solidarity. Having masculine gender forms as a functionally ‘unmarked’ category can be understood as a token of ‘male dominance’. Alternatively, having masculine gender as a ‘special’, marked one may be understood as a token of special importance and particular ‘visibility’ of males in cultural practices. The choice of Linguistic Gender may reflect stereotypes and expectations associated with Social Gender and with Natural Gender. This is especially salient for humans with their defined social roles, and particularly so in languages whose speakers are aware of the meanings of genders.Less

Father State: Socialist Transformation and Gendered Historiography

Charlene E. Makley

in The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China

This chapter examines in detail the politics of time in national incorporation processes. It tries to understand the “Democratic Reforms” in the Labrang region, and expands the notion of the ... More

This chapter examines in detail the politics of time in national incorporation processes. It tries to understand the “Democratic Reforms” in the Labrang region, and expands the notion of the “feminine hinge” between the static past and advancing national modernity in the People's Republic of China. The chapter also discusses the spatial politics of contextualization in order to consider gender historiography in post-Mao Labrang.Less

Narratives of Nine Italian-American Women: Childhood, Work, and Marriage

Carol Bonomo Jennngs and Christine Palamidessi Moore

in American Woman, Italian Style: Italian Americana's Best Writings on Women

The author was a participant-observer of some first- and second-generation Italian-American women in New York City. The thematic content of the life stories of these women, who had lived all of their ... More

The author was a participant-observer of some first- and second-generation Italian-American women in New York City. The thematic content of the life stories of these women, who had lived all of their childhood and adulthood in Little Italy, New York, emerged and unfolded spontaneously during meetings with the author. Their stories are the source of a rich psychological narrative that gives insight into the intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics of these women. This narrative describes their struggle to make lives for themselves within the parameters of their social class and the sexual, legal, and religious mores set for them by tradition. A lesson that can be learned from the narratives of the lives of these women is making the unmastered past conscious, becoming free psychologically to meet the developmental challenges of integrating aspects of feminine identity which have been split and dissociated for centuries.Less

Intimate Publicities: Retreating the Theologico-Political in the Chávez Regime?

Rafael Sánchez

in Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World

This chapter demonstrates how a “theologico-political balloon”, the Bolivarian republic of Hugo Chávez regime in Venezuela, has been deflated instantly by mediatic ... More

This chapter demonstrates how a “theologico-political balloon”, the Bolivarian republic of Hugo Chávez regime in Venezuela, has been deflated instantly by mediatic effects. In power since December 1998, the Chávez regime has been characterized by a radical constitutionalism and a political theology that identifies with the nation's dead founding hero, Simon Bolívar. The chapter evokes the hilarious media event that epitomized—or triggered—the regime's loss of auratic authority, shifting the overall tone of public debate from deference to ridicule, as the military was put on the spot for its alleged impotence via the (first anonymous, then televised) sending of women's colored lingerie. This is a fateful provocation whose violence is more symbolic than physical. Yet another sample of an effective politics of scandal and insult, just as it is one of sexual politics (or, rather, of using the sexual politically), the “panties episode” intervened in the public domain of a state whose gendered identity and auratic authority are largely contingent upon its being demarcated from the domain of privacy and feminine sexuality.Less

The Reformist State and the Universalist Orientation

Aziz al-Azmeh

in Secularism in the Arab World: Contexts, Ideas and Consequences

This chapter sketches state-reformist initiatives in the late Ottoman empire, considered as systemic transformations in a global context of modern state forms with associated forms of social ... More

This chapter sketches state-reformist initiatives in the late Ottoman empire, considered as systemic transformations in a global context of modern state forms with associated forms of social engineering and state intervention in culture and law-making. It proposes that the consequence of these changes and transformations were secularising, intended as well as unintended. The chapter discusses the beginnings of educational and cognitive transformation, the rise of a new class and type of senior bureaucrats, the emergence of a modern intelligentsia, the appearance and spread of new forms of dress. Also discussed are counter-vailing, conservative reactions, both by religious institutions, resistant to reform and the attrition of authority, and conservative milieu more broadly. The issue of women’s education, dress and public visibility emerges as a site of contestation.Less

The Self-Indulgent Khit hsan thu: Culture, Nation, and Masculinity on Trial

Chie Ikeya

in Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma

This chapter examines why the khit hsan thu and other variants of the fashionable female became the target of censorious and often misogynistic representations in the media. It considers various ... More

This chapter examines why the khit hsan thu and other variants of the fashionable female became the target of censorious and often misogynistic representations in the media. It considers various criticisms hurled against the khit hsan thuand their motivations, along with the social and political roles and meanings encoded in the bodily practices of the khit hsan thu. It discusses what were perceived to be fashionable women's sartorial habits and consumer practices and the claims that they were frivolous, self-indulgent, unpatriotic, and willing culprits of imperialist, capitalist, and Western modernity. It links the debate over the dress and comportment of the khit hsan thu as well as the discourse on the contentious feminine figure to the colonial politics of masculinity.Less

Esau’s Gender Crossing: Parashat Toldot (Genesis 25:19–28:9)

Sarra Lev

in Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible

This chapter provides a queerly interpretation of Esau's character in the readings of Parashat Toldot of Genesis. Esau is one of the twin sons of Rebekah who was known for his large and hairy ... More

This chapter provides a queerly interpretation of Esau's character in the readings of Parashat Toldot of Genesis. Esau is one of the twin sons of Rebekah who was known for his large and hairy appearance. The account of Esau reveals that his depiction, as stereotypically masculine hunter, is inaccurate. Instead, he possesses a stereotypically feminine character: emotional, kindly, and subservient. This feminine Esau continually approaches life with innocence, only to be shoved aside in favor of his savvier, cool, and street-smart little brother. Both the Biblical text itself and rabbinic midrash on the story contain gender in versions, in which Esau rejects his overtly male description and legacy in favor of “classically female” choices.Less

Poverty the Invisible and Inseparable ‘Shadow’: Reflections from the Media and the Better-Off in Rural Uganda

Amon Ashaba Mwiine and Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo

in Poverty and Shame: Global Experiences

The chapter draws on the opinions of the relatively wealthy gathered through focus group discussions and an analysis of newspaper coverage on poverty issues. It introduces insights into the perceived ... More

The chapter draws on the opinions of the relatively wealthy gathered through focus group discussions and an analysis of newspaper coverage on poverty issues. It introduces insights into the perceived causes of poverty in Uganda and how these inform societal responses to people experiencing it. The chapter illustrates how the poverty–shame nexus arises not just from personal feelings of inadequacy and failure but from discourses which routinely impose shame on those living in poverty. It also shows how poverty and its associations are gendered: masculine poverty (enaku y’ekisaija) is considered to affect men’s abilities to meet their traditional patriarchal responsibilities; while feminine poverty (enaku y’ekikazi) undermines the expected roles of women. The chapter demonstrates how society in general in Uganda holds a broadly negative view of people living in poverty and largely confirms the negative and critical treatment by others previously described by people experiencing daily economic hardship.Less

Śrī/Lakṣmī: Goddess of Plenitude and Ideal of Womanhood

Mandakranta Bose

in The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess

Goddess Lakṣmī, also called Śrī in early texts, is a goddess not only worshiped by Hindus as the source of wealth, domestic stability, and Viṣṇu’s beloved consort, but also venerated as an exemplar ... More

Goddess Lakṣmī, also called Śrī in early texts, is a goddess not only worshiped by Hindus as the source of wealth, domestic stability, and Viṣṇu’s beloved consort, but also venerated as an exemplar of virtuous womanhood, especially within the domestic sphere. Known in the earliest Hindu sacred texts as a provider deity and upholder of royal authority, Śrī/Lakṣmī is understood in Hindu theology as a manifestation of the primordial energy called śakti and thus a form of Devī, the Great Goddess. Her public worship rites are performed in autumn, most colorfully at Dīpāvalī (Diwali) or the festival of lights in many parts of India. She is worshiped more regularly on a weekly or even daily basis in many Hindu homes mainly by women.Less