Cover not available
Part of
Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins
Edited by Julie Abbou and Fabienne H. Baider
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 264] 2016
► pp. 47–64

Gender marking and the feminine imaginary in Arabic

In classical and dialectal Arabic syntax, linguists identify two opposite genders: masculine and feminine. The latter is linguistically marked by the morpheme a(t) (called fatha) while the former is considered unmarked and there is no neuter. The morphosyntactical rule of feminine marking seems to be obvious: it consists of adding a feminine inflection. Yet, this morphosyntactic marking does not apply systematically. Some adjectives do not have any feminine inflections despite describing physiological and psychological female phenomena for instance, hamel ‘pregnant’, taliq ‘repudiated’, thaib ‘widow’, mourdhi ‘breast feeder’, tamich ‘postmenopausal woman’. This chapter addresses the following two questions: Why does the gender marker disappear in such typical cases relating specifically to female biological states? If we suppose these lexical units are masculinized, what does this say about the social imaginary regarding gender and especially, the feminine?

Keywords: Arabic linguistics, feminization processes, gender, linguistic and cultural imaginary, professional titles, sexuality
Published online: 16 December 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.03gue
References
Aït Sabbah, Fatna
2010 La femme dans l’ inconscient musulman. Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Al Sigitani, Abu Hatim
1997 Al mudakkarwalmuaanat. Damas: Dar El Maaref.Google Scholar
Althaalabi Alnassabouri, Ismail
1957 Kitabfiqh al lughawasiru al arabiyya. Bayrut: Dar Alkutubalilmiyya.Google Scholar
Blachère, Régis, and Maurice Gaudeffroy-Demombynes
2004 Grammaire de l’arabe classique. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose.Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville G
1991 Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 “Gender, Grammatical”. In Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics, ed. by Keith Brown and Anne Anderson, 749–756. Boston: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio
2001 L’homme et son langage. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Gaddami, Abdallah
1996 Al marawallugha, al markizalthaqafialaarbi. s.l.: Daralbaydha.Google Scholar
Guardi, Jolanda
2008 “Pour un usage non sexiste de la langue arabe.” Studi maghrebini 6: 111–124.Google Scholar
Hadjidemetriou, Chryso
2016 “When She and He become It. The Use of Grammatical Gender in the Greek of the Armenians of Cyprus.” In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins, ed. by Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider, 197–226. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hjelmslev, Louis
1971 Essais de linguistique. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar
Horney, Karen
1932 “The Dread of Women.” The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis XIII: 349–361.Google Scholar
Houdebine, Anne-Marie
1998 “Insécurité linguistique, imaginaire linguistique et féminisations des noms de métiers.” In La femme et les langues. L’insécurité linguistique en question, ed. by Pascal de Singy, 155–177. Paris: Delachaux et Niestlé.Google Scholar
Ibn al Manzur
. s.d [1995] Lisān al-‘Arab, ed. by Yûsuf Hayyât. Beyrouth: DārLisān al-‘Arab.Google Scholar
Ibn Burd, Bashar
2010 Diwan Bachar Ibn Burd. Beyrouth: Dar El Kutub. [URL], (consulted on October, 1st 2016).Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman
1963 Essais de linguistique générale. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar
Larchère, Pierre
2002 “Masculin/féminin : sexe et genre en arabe classique.” Arabica 49 (2): 231–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Motschenbacher, Heiko
2016 “A Discursive Approach to Structural Gender Linguistics. Initial Considerations.” In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins, ed. by Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider, 65–88. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Muchnik, Malka
2016 “Trying to Change a Gender-Marked Language: Classical vs. Modern Hebrew.” In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins, ed. by Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider, 25–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nefzaoui, Mouhamed
1999 The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight. London, New York: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Schulz, Muriel R
1975 “The Semantic Derogation of Woman.” In Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance, ed. by Barrie Thorne and Nancy Henley, 64–75. Rowley: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Scott, Joan
2007 “Gender as a Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” In Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader, ed. by Richard Parker and Peter Aggleton, 61–82. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Yasir
1999 The Arabic Grammatical Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Tshimanga, Francis C. Ngoyi 2016 “Gender Bias in Bantu Languages. The Case of Cilubà (L31).” In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins, ed. by Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider, 129–164. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Weirich, Anna
2016 ““Moldovan” and Feminist Language Politics. Two Distinct Peripheral Linguistic Markets.” In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins, ed. by Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider, 255–292. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Wensinck, Arent Jan
1927 Some Aspects of Gender in the Semitic Languages. Amsterdam: Leterkunde Nieuwereeks.Google Scholar
Wright, William
1967 A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Hadjidemetriou, Chryso
2016. When She and He become It. In Gender, Language and the Periphery [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 264], ► pp. 227 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.