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This book presents a new cross-linguistic analysis of gender and its effects on morphosyntax. It addresses questions including the syntactic location of gender features; the role of natural gender; and the relationship between syntactic gender features and the morphological realization of gender. Ruth Kramer argues that gender features are syntactically located on the n head ('little n'), which serves to nominalize category-neutral roots. Those gender features are either interpretable, as in the case of natural gender, or uninterpretable, like the gender of an inanimate noun in Spanish. Adopting Distributed Morphology, the book lays out how the gender features on n map onto the gender features relevant for morphological exponence. The analysis is supported by an in-depth case study of Amharic, which poses challenges for previous gender analyses and provides clear support for gender on n. The proposals generate a typology of two- and three-gender systems, with the various types illustrated using data from a genetically diverse set of languages.0Finally, further evidence for gender being on n is provided from case studies of Somali and Romanian, as well as from the relationship between gender and other linguistic phenomena including derived nouns and declension class. Overall, the book provides one of the first large-scale, cross-linguistically-oriented, theoretical approaches to the morphosyntax of gender.

Grammar, Comparative and general --- Amharic language --- Gender. --- Morphosyntax. --- Gender --- Morphosyntax --- Abyssinian language --- Amaharinya language --- Amarigna language --- Amarinya language --- Amharinya language --- Ethiopian language --- Ethiopian languages --- Morphosyntactic features --- Gender (Grammar) --- Language and languages --- Morphology --- Syntax --- Sex differences --- Linguistics --- Philology

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People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language-written, widespread, sometimes used in school-surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility-and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect lang

African languages --- Language policy --- Native language and education --- Multilingualism --- Glottopolitics --- Institutional linguistics --- Language and languages --- Language and state --- Languages, National --- Languages, Official --- National languages --- Official languages --- State and language --- Communication policy --- Language planning --- Native language --- Education --- Language and education --- Plurilingualism --- Polyglottism --- Social aspects --- Government policy --- Use in schools --- Language policy. --- Multilingualism. --- Native language and education. --- Social aspects. --- Africa.