Abstract
The term 'gender' requires discussion, since linguistic traditions differ here. This requires us to confront the analytical issue of determining the number of genders in a given language. The central concern of this article will be gender assignment-that is, the way in which the native speaker allots nouns to genders. Examination of languages from different families reveals that genders always have a semantic core, which may be biological sex, or animacy, with other features also having a role. In some languages, nouns are assigned to genders solely on the basis of semantics, but in others this semantic information is supplemented by formal information, which may be phonological or morphological. Given this typology, it is apparent that gender is distributed in interesting ways across the world's languages. Finally, prospects for research into gender are considered. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.