고대게르만어에서의 명사의 성(Genus) 할당- 고트어와 고대영어를 중심으로 -

초록

This paper researches the principles for gender assignment in old Germanic languages, particularly in Gothic and Old English. The existing theories for gender assignment are largely divided into two viewpoints, the meaning-based assignment(by Grimm) and form-based assignment(by Brugmann and Meillet). However, sometimes, the gender assignment looks so arbitrary and even irregular, when it is in fact a very complicated problem in synchronic and diachronic relations with various elements such as the meaning of noun, word-formation, stem class and customs of speakers and so on. In chapter 2, the gender systems of Gothic, one of East-Germanic languages and Old English, one of West-Germanic languages are observed. In particular, the principles for gender assignment and phenomena of gender shift are prioritized and dealt with in both inherited words and loan words in the two languages. In Gothic and Old English, the stem class of inherited nouns usually indicates the gender of the word. The stem and gender of most inherited words coincide with those of cognates in Proto-Germanic and Indo-european words. This coincidence is similar for loan words as well, in that the loan words maintain the genders of the original words with their corresponding stem. In cases of the gender shift, the change of stem class caused by the misunderstanding of a inflectional form is the most important motive. Other case forms in a stem class are often wrongly regarded as the nominative singular form in another stem class by the casual formal identity, and this leads to the shift of the stem class and the change of gender. The gender assignments and gender shifts by synonyms and cover term in the same semantic field are observed in some cases. In conclusion, it can be said that the morphological elements are given more weight on the gender assignment in Gothic and Old English, than semantic elements.

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