Optimizing gender

This paper develops optimal gender assignment theory, an approach to gender assignment couched within the formalism of Optimality Theory [Prince, Alan, Smolensky, Paul, 1993. Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction inGenerative Grammar. Rutgers University andUniversity of Colorado, Boulder] and drawing on Steinmetz’ [Steinmetz, Donald, 1985. Gender in German and Icelandic: inanimate nouns. In: Faarlund, J.T. (Ed.), Germanic Linguistics. Papers from a Symposium at the University of Chicago. IULC, Bloomington, IN, pp. 10–28; Steinmetz, Donald, 1986. Two principles and some rules for gender in German: inanimate nouns. Word 37, 189–217] insights into the nature of gender assignment. We focus on cases of gender assignment conflict, i.e., cases in which a noun is within the domain of competing gender assignment principles. A typological of such conflicts is proposed, distinguishing balanced from imbalancedconflicts, anda formalismisdeveloped.We argue that features relevant for gender assignment contribute equally to that process, such that there is no priority of principles sensitive to semantic features, contra Corbett [Corbett, Greville, 1991. Gender. CUP, Cambridge]. In the context of Optimality Theory, optimal gender assignment theory provides an example of crucial equal ranking, a formal option allowed but unexplored by Prince and Smolensky (1993). # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.