Subproject 2: Grammatical gender in discourse and grammar
PI: Univ.-Prof. Dr phil. Edgar Onea
Project staff: Simon Dampfhofer, BA BSc MA
Subproject 2 is interested in an analysis of the discourse structural interpretation of gender features. The main focus of the subproject is the study of gender mismatches, which describe cases where grammatical gender does not agree with semantic gender (e.g., in German “das Mädchen”, where a neuter determiner is used in an expression referring to a semantically feminine girl). The goal is to construct a detailed theory for the syntax-semantics interface of gender, enabling the explanation of gender mismatch phenomena. One central hypothesis is that gender might be described analogously to an analysis of so-called referential loci in sign languages. Methodologically, the subproject will conduct several empirical studies to gain a solid understanding of underlying phenomena. For theory building, frameworks of dynamical semantics and DRT will be the basis.
Publications and presentations
- Ivona Kučerová and Edgar Onea. NP2 copular agreement revisited: Evidence from presentational contexts. Leiden/Bielefeld Workshop on Comparative Syntax. May 22-23, 2025. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
- Ivona Kučerová and Edgar Onea. What is there to agree with? Evidence from presentational copular clauses. Referential Structure in Communication: International Conference on Language and Communication. May 29-30, 2025. University of Graz. Graz, Austria.
- Edgar Onea und Simon Dampfhofer: “New Data on Gender Mismatches and Anaphora”, RED Conference: Mismatches in Anaphoric Relations, 29.-30.05-2025.
- Gender shift in German. An experimental investigation. Edgar Onea und MA-Studierende.
- Ivona Kučerová and Edgar Onea. NP2 copular agreement in presentational contexts. Talk at OLINCO. June 5-7, 2025. Palacký University, Olomouc, the Czech Republic.
- Ivona Kučerová and Edgar Onea.What you are presented with is not what you predicate over. A talk to be presented at the 2nd International Workshop on the Syntax of Predication and Modification. Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest, Hungary. September 1-2, 2025.
- Ivona Kučerová and Edgar Onea.The Unbearable Simplicity of Being Something. A poster to be presented at Sinn und Bedeutung 30 (SuB 30). Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, September 23-27, 2025.
Cooperations
- Professor Daniel Altshuler (Oxford University)
- Maya Cortez Espinoza (University of Graz)
- Professor Gianina Iordachioaia (University of Graz)
- Professor Ivona Kučerová (McMaster University)
