<p>The generic term for genders is "word classes". In some languages male/female isn't the main way to divide up the world.</p>

<p>Word classes are useful for co-ordination. If a language lacks gender, (or animacy, what have you), then you need some other way to know what adjective goes with what noun, which antecedent a pronoun refers to and so on. A language with lousy coordination might be English, with things like "He saw him hit him with it."</p>

<p>They make languages hard for language learners because the semantic relationship between the word classes overtime becomes increasingly arbitrary and creates a lexical burden for language learners, i.e. you just have to memorize the word class for each word. Also, gender marker is obligatory, so you have a high entry cost-- you can't say anything until you work out the genders of the relevant words.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-22T15:34:29.093Z
2018-08-22T15:34:29.093Z
MatthewMartin
<p>In a previous question about making a language easy to learn as a second language I suggested that grammatical genders have very little usefulness. A couple of people, however, suggested that grammatical genders have more usefulness than I think. Because of this I am interested in hearing about any potential uses for grammatical genders.</p>

<p>Usefulness can be identified by looking at what happens when the grammatical gender is removed. If the speaker needs to communicate the lost information through other means then the grammatical gender is deemed useful.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-22T14:49:55.357Z
Are you asking about gender-like grammatical gender (male vs. female, maybe neuter) or about noun classes, which can be very complex (ranging from animate vs. inanimate to several hundred different classes)?
Cecilia
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-22T16:00:40.403Z
@Richard I am mainly interested in grammatical genders with a small number of classes (2, 3, or 4) since the inspiration for my question came from French and German. That said, I would be fine with an answer that talks about noun class systems with a larger number of classes.
Kevin
<grammar><gender>
In what ways are grammatical genders useful?
# In what ways are grammatical genders useful?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-08-22)

In a previous question about making a language easy to learn as a second language I suggested that grammatical genders have very little usefulness. A couple of people, however, suggested that grammatical genders have more usefulness than I think. Because of this I am interested in hearing about any potential uses for grammatical genders.

Usefulness can be identified by looking at what happens when the grammatical gender is removed. If the speaker needs to communicate the lost information through other means then the grammatical gender is deemed useful.

**Tags:** grammar, gender

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you asking about gender-like grammatical gender (male vs. female, maybe neuter) or about noun classes, which can be very complex (ranging from animate vs. inanimate to several hundred different classes)?  
> **username_0**: @Richard I am mainly interested in grammatical genders with a small number of classes (2, 3, or 4) since the inspiration for my question came from French and German. That said, I would be fine with an answer that talks about noun class systems with a larger number of classes.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-08-22. Score: 4

The generic term for genders is "word classes". In some languages male/female isn't the main way to divide up the world.

Word classes are useful for co-ordination. If a language lacks gender, (or animacy, what have you), then you need some other way to know what adjective goes with what noun, which antecedent a pronoun refers to and so on. A language with lousy coordination might be English, with things like "He saw him hit him with it."

They make languages hard for language learners because the semantic relationship between the word classes overtime becomes increasingly arbitrary and creates a lexical burden for language learners, i.e. you just have to memorize the word class for each word. Also, gender marker is obligatory, so you have a high entry cost-- you can't say anything until you work out the genders of the relevant words.


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