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A Simplified Approach for Teaching the Gender of Spanish Nouns

Author(s): John J. Bergen


Source: Hispania, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec., 1978), pp. 865-876
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/340934
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A SIMPLIFIEDAPPROACH FOR TEACHING THE
GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS
JOHN J. BERGEN
The University of New Mexico

NE of the most challenging problems English-speakingstudents to master.


O
tive
for students of Spanish who are na- 1. A survey of previous studies. In order
speakers of English is that of learning to see if the students' difficulties are due
the gender of Spanish nouns (e.g., papel ultimately to inaccurate descriptionsof the
as masculine, nieve as feminine, testigo as Spanish gender system we consulted sev-
ambivalent, etc.). This identification is, of eral of the most respected sources on Span-
course, grammaticallyimportant since it is ish grammar which are designed to aid
the basis for the agreement of gender- English-speakers.2Some well-known stud-
variable adjectives and gender-variablede- ies (e.g., Stockwell et al., pp. 43 and 47;
terminers with nouns (el papel blanco, la and Keniston, p. 42) imply that there is
blanca nieve, un testigo fidedigno, una tes- no solution to the problem of gender, apart
tigo fidedigna). In fact, Stockwell et al.1 from memorizingthe gender of most nouns.
claim that, since the occurrence of gender However, there are a few studies which
is obligatoryin all Spanish nouns but non- fare much better in their attempts to deal
existent in English nouns, it exemplifies with this problem. Six of the most com-
the most difficult type of problem for a prehensive treatments of Spanish gender
second-language learner. Accordingly, in are those by Bull, Bull et al., Dalbor, Da
their "Hierarchy of Difficulty" Stockwell Silva, Dinnes, and Ramsey. Their descrip-
et al., p. 285, list "gender"as the fifth most tions are summarizedin Table 1.
difficult feature of Spanish grammar for

TABLE 1
THE GENDEROF SPANISHNOUNS ACCORDINGTO PREVIOUSSTUDIES
CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION EXAMPLES Rules3 given by
B BBL Dal DS Din R
I MASCULINEGENDERNOUNS
A. According to meaning
(1) male beings el toro 1 1 1 1 1
(2) masculine persons el muchacho 1
(3) countries Exceptions: those el Perui 2 2
(4) districts ending in unaccented Aragdn 3
(5) divisions of -a (e.g., Espaiia)
territory el Peloponeso 4
(6) rivers Exceptions: epithets el Sena 3 5
(7) oceans which are properly el Atldntico 4 6
(8) seas not el Adridtico 5
femininea proper
originally
()mountains pr
names (la Sierra 6 7
(9) mountains el Etna
(10) mountain chains Nevada) los Andes 8
(11) cities Exceptions: those Jerez 9
(12) towns ending in -a (Sevilla) El Salto 10
(13) villages El Fuerte 11
(14) numbers tres 7
(15) days of the week el lunes 8
(16) monthsof the year enero 9
(17) ships el Virginia
de Churruca 10
(18) geographical directions el sur 11

865

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866 JOHN J. BERGEN c1
Hispania (Dec. 1978)

B. Accordingto grammaticalform
(19) infinitives el leer 2 12 12
(20) phrases el que dijeras
eso 13
(21) indeclinable words el si 13 14
(22) compound nouns el tocadiscos 2
C. Accordingto etymology
(23) words of Greekorigin el programa 14
ending in (24) -ma el clima 3 3
(25) -ama el telegrama 2
(26) -ema el sistema 3
(27) -oma el idioma 4
(28) -pa el mapa 4 4
(29) -ta el planeta 5 5
D. Accordingto termination,i.e., nouns ending in
(30) -n el ademdn 2 5
(31) -o el hielo 3 6 6 6 15 15
(32) -r el cardcter 4 7
(33) -s el pats 5 8
(34) -e el golpe 6 9
(35) -1 el ideal 7 10 7
(36) any terminalexcept -a, -d, -cidn, -sidn,
-tidn, -xidn, -sis, and -itis el espiritu 8
(37) any terminalexcept -a, -d, -cidn, -sion,
-umbre, -sis, -itis, the female marking suffix
-iz, and the abstractnoun-forming
suffix -ez el reloj 11
(38) a stressedsyllable . . el cafi 16a
Exceptions:those with usual feminine
endings (la vejez)
especiallythose ending in -r, -1 ... el amor 16b
el animal 16c
Exceptions:those ending in a stressed
syllable containing -id- (la miel)
and -dn el rincdn 16d
Exceptions:those ending in -idn (la
nacidn)
E. Accordingto other phonologicalproperties
(39) uncommonwordswith a stressed-a- in
the first syllable el gaje 17
(40) words with diphthongsin the stressed el viaje 18a
syllable, especially-di- and -u4i- el baile 18b
el guante 18c
(41) words of one syllable el sol 19
Exceptions:those ending in -z (la cruz)
(42) polysyllabicwords el horizonte 20
Exceptions:those (a) with diphthongs-
la corriente,(b) stressedon the last
syllable-la catedral,(c) with stressed
-4- in the firstsyllable- la cldmide,
(d) which are gender-ambivalent-el
consonante, la consonante
II FEMININE GENDER NOUNS
A. Accordingto meaning
(43) female beings la muchacha 9 12 8 7 21 16
(44) letters of any alphabet la b 22 17
B. According to termination,i.e., nouns ending in
(45) -a la cabeza 10 13 9 8 23
Exceptions:wordsof Greekorigin
ending in -ma (el drama) 18
(46) -d la merced 11 14 10
(47) -ad la bondad 24

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THEGENDEROF SPANISHNOUNS
TEACHING 867
(48) -ud la salud 25
(49) -dad la ciudad 9 19
(50) -tad la libertad 10 20
(51) -tud la virtud 11 21
(52) -idn la opini6n 12 26 22
(53) -cidn la condicidn 12 15 11 13
(54) -sidn la confusio'n 13 16
(55) -tidn la cuestidn 14
(56) -xidn la conexidn 15
(57) -is la bilis 27
(58) -sis la sintesis 16 17
(59) -itis la hepatitis 17 18
(60) -umbre la costumbre 19 14 28 23
(61) -ie la superficie 15 29 24
(62) -z la paz 12 30
(63) the female marking suffix -iz la actriz 20
(64) the abstract noun-forming suffix -ez la rapidez 21
C. According to other phonological properties
(65) common words with a stressed -i- in the
first syllable la calle 31
(66) most words with stressed -ie- la fiebre 32
(67) some words with stressed -ud- la suerte 33
III GENDER-AMBIVALENT NOUNS
(68) nouns ending in -ista el turista 13 16
la turista
(69) nouns ending in -a and which can refer el espia
to a male person la espia 14
(70) nouns ending in -a and which can refer
to males or females according to the el compatriota
gender which they exemplify la compatriota 25
TOTAL NUMBER OF RULES IN EACH STUDY 17 21 14 16 33 25
The abbreviations B, BBL, Dal, DS, Din, and R are used in this table to refer to Bull, Bull et
al., Dalbor, Da Silva, Dinnes, and Ramsey respectively.

There are numerous deficiencies in the Percentage of Number of exceptions


six studies analyzed in Table 1. accuracy of which must be
rules learned individually
(1) The most obvious shortcoming is the Da Silva: 82.7% 162
large number of rules which the student Ramsey: 82.8% 161
must learn in each case. Dalbor: 82.9% 160
Bull: 92.4% 71
(2) In order to test the accuracy of the Dinnes: 92.8% 67
rules in these studies we attempted to Bull et al.: 93.3% 63
classify (according to the rules in each
We reject the treatments by Dalbor, Ram-
study) as many as possible of the 935
nouns in A Compact Spanish Vocabulary sey, and Da Silva because of their obvious
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Thrift Press, 1938), pp. 1- inaccuracy. Likewise, we do not accept the
10. The 2000 words in this booklet are presentationsby Dinnes, Bull, and Bull et
"the most common words of the language al. since (although they are the most ac-
as established by frequency counts."'4Con- curate treatments of gender that we have
had until now) each of these three pre-
sequently, for pedagogical purposes the ac-
sentations requires the student to learn
curacy of the rules in determining the gen-
der of these 935 nouns of high frequency both a large number of rules and a large
is more significant than their accuracy in number of exceptions to those rules.
determining the gender of all nouns in the (3) The reason for the large number of
lexicon5 (if indeed the two are substan- rules in the treatments by Dinnes and
tially distinct). The results of this investi- Ramsey is that they classify nouns to an
gation are as follows: excessive degree on irrelevant semantic

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868 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)

and other non-phonemicbasesratherthan descriptionof Spanishgender,a contribu-


primarilyaccordingto phonemiccriteria. tion which, as just noted, remainsunfor-
For example, 14 of Ramsey's25 rules as tunatelyand paradoxically covertin Bull's
well as 14 of Dinnes' 33 rules are seman- study.
tic, grammatical,or etymologicalin nature. (5) On the other hand, as indicatedby
But, as discovered by Bull and as shown HerschelJ. Frey,7the validityof Dinnes'
to an even greaterextent in Sections3.2 article is questionable. Frey "suggests the
and 3.3 of the presentstudy,the basesfor possibilitythat in generalthe so-calledun-
the gender of Spanish nouns are mainly classifiable nouns are masculine . . . [and
phonemic. therefore]it is not difficultto seek and
the
(4) Conversely, analysesby Bull and find certain phonological pattern groups,"
Bull et al. place too much emphasisupon such as those described by several of
phonemiccriteria.Specifically,Bull is un- Dinnes' questionable phonemically-based
duly preoccupiedwith two trivialphone- rules-namely,rules (38)-(42), (66), and
mic matters:(a) the terminologicalques- (67) in Table 1.
tion of the improprietyof the traditional (6) Finally,the matterof gender-ambiva-
terms"masculine" and "feminine"genders lent nouns (el iuirtir, la nuirtir;el artista,
(since, as Bull shows, the majorityof la artista;etc.) is dealt with inadequatelyin
Spanishnouns are markedfor genderby all of the sources analyzed in this section.
theirterminalphonemesand suffixesrather The problemis either ignoredcompletely
than by the sex of their referents) and (Dinnes, Keniston,and Stockwellet al.),
(b) the matching of the terminal pho- or it is implied that the student has no re-
nemes of gender-variable adjectiveswith course but to memorizeeach gender-am-
these terminal phonemesand suffixesof bivalentnoun (Bull, p. 108; and Bull et
nouns. Bull et al. are also overly con- al., p. 156), or only some of the rules for
cernedwith this processof matching.But identifying the gender-ambivalent nouns
from a practicalviewpoint the labels of are presented(Dalbor,pp. 163-64and 453-
the two genders"and an abstractunder- 54; Da Silva, p. 395; and Ramsey, pp. 29
standingof the total matchingprocessare and 33-34).
insignificantin comparisonto simplybeing The purposeof the presentstudy is to
able to determine in a given instance providea frameworkfor accuratelydeter-
whether a particularSpanish noun is of mining the gender of Spanish nouns with
the masculinegender or of the feminine a minimum of memorizationof exceptions.
gender.As a resultof Bull'sexcessivecon- This framework is a set of ruleswhich (a)
cern with terminologyand the matching are fewer in number than those given in
process many textbookwriters, linguists, previousstudiesbut which also (b) have
and teachershavebeenunawareof the pho- fewer exceptions than previous sets of
nemically-based rules-i.e., rules(30)-(36), rules, and which (c) incorporateall rele-
(45), (46), (53)-(56), (58), and (59) in vant semantic and phonemic criteria for
Table 1-which Bull gives for determining gender classificationbut which also (d)
the gender of Spanish nouns; as one ex- ignore all semantic, phonemic, and other
ample of this lack of awareness,Dinnes materialwhich is irrelevantto the gender
(1971) makesno referencewhatsoeverto classification of Spanish nouns.
Bull (1965), althoughBull had six years 2. The nature of gender agreement.
earlierfoundsolutionsto the samehypoth- Such a set of rules shows that the word
esis investigatedby Dinnes. Nevertheless, "gender" is a grammatical term. That is,
these phonemically-based rules are (in my genders are merely classes of nouns which
opinion) Bull's greatest contribution to the are reflected in the behavior of associated

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TEACHING THE GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS 869

words." In Spanish the associated words 3.1. Semanticrulesfor genderclassifica-


are the class of modifiers (adjectives and tion. In contrastto the definitionof gen-
determiners such as buen-, francis-, est-, der upheld in the presentstudy, the Real
etc.) which are inflected for gender to Academia Espafiola mistakenly claims:
agree with the nouns with which they are "G6neroes el accidente gramaticalque
used (este cafe bueno : esta mantequilla sirveparaindicarel sexo de las personasy
buena; iQued bueno es este muchacho! : de los animalesy el que se atribuyea las
iQue buena es esta muchacha!; Considero cosas, o bien para indicarque no se les
bueno este capitulo : Considero buena esta atribuyeninguno."'
obra). Nouns are not inflectedfor gender, However,as Bull (p. 106) points out,
of whethertheyareof contrasting
regardless the terms"masculine" and "feminine"are
gender pairs (muchacho : muchacha) or not descriptiveof the logic by which the
not (cafe, mantequilla, capitulo, obra). majorityof Spanish nouns are classified
Rather most nouns are inherently of a withinone or the otherof the two genders.
given gender and a small number of nouns Rather,only in the case of somenounsre-
are inherently of both genders (ascensoris- ferringto animateentities having biologi-
ta, cdmplice, testigo, etc.). But nouns gov- cal sex are these termsmeaningful.That
ern the gender inflection of their gender- is, the only two semanticrulesfor the gen-
variable modifiers. For example, in the der classificationof nouns are:
phrases given above the gender of caf?, (1) a noun which refersinvariablyto one
muchacho, and capitulo governs the gender male being is of the masculinegender(el
inflection of este and bueno; similarly, the hombre,el cocinero,el gallo, etc.) and
gender inflection of esta and buena is gov- (2) a noun which alwaysrefersto one fe-
erned by the gender of mantequilla, mu- male is of the femininegender(la mujer,
chacha, and obra. Consequently, the first la cocinera,la gallina,etc.).
three nouns are of one gender and the In all othercasesthe genderrepresented
latter three are membersof another gender. by a noun is independentof the natureof
3. A practical framework for determin- its referent.For example,it has not been
ing the gender of Spanish nouns. Since previouslyrecognizedthat the grammatical
Spanish has a two-gendersystem the teach- genderof namesof groupsof animateen-
er must be able to tell the students: (a) tities is not basedon the sex of these enti-
the characteristicsof Spanish nouns which ties; thus, harem(althoughreferringto a
regularly identify them as masculine gen- group of females) is a masculinegender
der nouns, feminine gender nouns, or noun and torada'herdof bulls' is a noun
gender-ambivalent nouns, and (b) the of the femininegender.Similarly,the gen-
nouns (particularly those of high fre- der of epicene nouns (those which are of
quency) which are exceptions to these one gender and refer to either males or
rules. females,such as angel, majestad,persona,
It is shown below that there are two victima, etc.) is not based on the sex of the
semantic rules (discussed in Section 3.1) referent. Many epicene nouns refer to ani-
and eight phonemic rules (Section 3.2) mals. Among such semanticallyarbitrary
by which the gender of Spanish nouns is gender classifications are el mosquito, el
consistently determined. Also presented pdjaro,el ratcn,and el sapo which are al-
(Section 3.3) are exceptions to these rules, ways masculinein genderwhereasthe bio-
as well as two rules for identifying the logically similar la mosca, la gaviota, la
gender of many of these exceptions and rata, and la rana are always feminine.
two other rules for identifying gender- Other epicene nouns which are applied
ambivalent nouns. A summary of the find- indiscriminately to male and female ani-
ings is given in Table 2. mals are:

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870 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)

el adive 'the jackal' esa Aiguila 'that eagle' epicene nouns in the literary standard do
el buho 'the owl' la ardilla 'the squirrel' have contrastinggender forms in more col-
el canario'the canary' la cebra 'the zebra'
el coyote 'the coyote' la cotorra 'the parrot' loquial usage, the sex of the referents be-
el escarabajo 'the la comadreja 'the ing denoted by the contrasts in grammati-
black-beetle' weasel' cal gender (e.g., el avestruz : la avestruza
el gaviiMn 'the hawk' la jaca 'the pony' 'the ostrich,' el cabro : la cabra 'the goat,'
el gorila 'the gorilla' la llama 'the llama' and several other pairs).1' Finally, the gen-
However, some animal names which are der classificationsof nouns which have in-

TABLE 2
A NEW FRAMEWORK THE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS
FORDETERMINING
CRITERIA POR
CLASSIFICATION FEMININEGENDERNOUNS MASCULINEGENDERNOUNS
A. Sex of the (1) one female: la vaca, la mujer, (2) one male: el toro, el poeta, Luis
referent Isabel
B. Terminal (3) -a: la cocina (10) any terminal except those given
letter(s) (4) -d: la humanidad in rules (3)-(9), especially
of the noun (5) -z: la luz (10.1) -1: el papel
(6) -idn: la instruccidn (10.2) -o: el oro
(7) -umbre: la costumbre (10.3) -n: el volcan
(8) -ie: la serie (10.4) -e: el nombre
(9) unstressed -is: la tesis (10.5) -r: el poder
(10.6) -s: el mes
and also
(10.7) other terminals: el
rubi, el tisti, el reloj, el al-
bum, el cenit, el finix, el
Uruguay
C. Exceptions I. Classes of exceptions
(11) common nouns with stressed -4- (12) nouns of Greek origin ending
in the first syllable: la clase in -ma: el clima
II. Gender-ambivalentnouns
Nouns which are markedas ambivalent
(13) Those which end in -a and, as masculinegender nouns, refer to a male:
atleta, policia, escolta, guia
The most obvious nouns are those markedby the derivationalsuffixes
-ata: acrobata
-icola: agricola
-cida: homicida
-ista-: novelista
-ita: moscovita
-ota: patriota
(14) Those which end in -1, -o, -n, -e, or -r and, as feminine gender nouns,
refer to a female: infiel, reo, joven, c6mplice, martir
The most obviousnouns are those markedby the derivationalsuffixes
-al: criminal
-ante ~ -(i)ente: habitante, descendiente, residente
-(i)ense: londinense, parisiense
Unmarkedgender-ambivalentnouns
Those which have inanimatereferents:arte
Pairs of homophonousnouns of oppositegenders: orden
III. Individual exceptions
la senial la metr6poli el dia
la foto la tribu el
la imagen la troj el atatd
arroz
la gente la ley el avidn
la flor el pardntesis
la tos

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TEACHINGTHE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS 871

animate referents have no semantic basis. Inasmuch as feminine gender nouns are
For example, el objeto, el rostro, el lecho, identified by these seven rules there is just
and el drbol are masculine gender nouns one phonemic criterion for identifying
whereas the semantically similar forms la masculine gender nouns-they generally
cosa, la cara, la cama, and la planta are of end in any letter except the seven markers
the feminine gender. just mentioned. The most common mas-
There is an obvious descriptive and ped- culine gender markers are -1, -o, -n, -e, -r,
agogical need to explain, not only the cri- and -s. These letters form a mnemonic de-
teria for determining the gender of nouns vice-the word "loners"-by which students
referring to one male or one female, but can readily identify most masculine gen-
even moreso the rules for identifying the der nouns. We believe that it is easier to
gender of all other nouns. The rules of remember "loners"than the nonsense word
this latter type are phonemic in nature and "norsel" which is proposed for this same
are presented in the following sub-section. purpose by Bull et al., SFC: Level Three,
3.2. Phonemic rules for gender classifi- pp. 156 and 446. Examples of masculine
cation. Both Dinnes (p. 488) and Bull (p. gender nouns marked by "loners,"as well
as by other terminals, are:
110) maintain that phonemic criteria play
a more significant role in gender classifica- (1) -1: el drbol, el clavel, el papel . ..
(2) -o: el dedo, el hierro, el rayo .. .
tion than has been traditionally recog- -n: el almacen, el desddn, el pan ...
(3)
nized. The following is a smaller but a (4) -e: el ambiente, el bosque, el instante . ..
more comprehensive and a more accurate (5) -r: el exterior, el rumor, el temor . ..
set of phonemically-basedrules than those (6) -s: el jueves, el mes, el tacadiscos . .
given in Dinnes, Bull, or Bull et al., which (7) other terminals, namely,
(as already indicated) are the most accu- -i: el bisturi,el colibri,el rubi . .
rate previous treatmentsof Spanish gender. -u: el biricui, el esplritu, el tiszi . .
-J: el boj,el carcaj,el reloj. ..
Feminine gender nouns typically end in: -m: el dlbum, el islam, el memordndum ...
-t: el acimut, el cenit, el ddficit. ..
(1) -a: la arena, la casa, la paciencia . . . -x: el climax, el finix, el t6rax ...
(2) -d: la sociedad, la libertad, la virtud, la -y: el carey, el Paraguay, el pejerrey ...
pared . ..
As shown by the examples, this rule subsumes The phonemic marking of masculine
nouns derived with the feminine gender suffixes gender forms indicates that, contraryto the
-dad, -tad, and -tud (which are treated individ- claims of tradition (e.g., as maintained by
ually in many other studies),"1 as well as other the Real Academia Espafiola, pp. 11-12,
nouns ending in -d.
and by Stockwell et al., p. 78), Spanish
(3) -z: la cruz, la nariz, la vejez . . .12 does not have a neuter gender. That is, the
(4) -ion: la leccicn, la prisi1n, la cuestidn, la term "neuter gender" has inappropriately
reflexirn, la regirn, la opinicn ...
been used to classify the pronouns esto,
This marker includes the feminine gender suf-
fixes, cidn, -sidn, -tidn,-xidn,-gidn,and -irn which eso, aquello, ello, and (in some of its oc-
are given as separaterules (with some of these currences) lo, since these five words are the
variants even being omitted)13 in other treat- only overt remnantsin Spanish of the Latin
ments. neuter gender. However, their association
(5) -umbre: la costumbre, la lumbre, la mu- with a neuter gender is a consequence of de-
chedumbre...
scribing Spanish grammaraccording to the
(6) -ie: la especie; la serie, la superficie. . .
categoriesof Latin grammar.The latter did
(7) unstressed -is: la tesis, la apendicitis, la have a neuter gender which was lost in the
bilis . . .
Most prominent among the feminine gender evolution of Latin into Spanish. But in
nouns marked by atonic -is are learned words view of the definition of grammaticalgen-
derived with the Greek suffixes -sis and -itis. der (given in Section 2), these five "neu-

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872 JoHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)

ter" forms, rather than constituting a third the rules given above, thereby further re-
gender, are merely masculine gender pro- ducing the amount of memorization to
nouns: they terminate in -o (the most fre- which students must be subjected. (Com-
quent marker of masculine gender forms) pare Bull, p. 108.) That is, exceptions are
and their modifiers show the same formal dealt with in three distinct fashions.
agreement as do the modifiers of other 3.31. Classes of exceptions. There are
masculine gender forms (compare El perro two large groups of exceptions whose gen-
es pequeiio and Esto es pequeio). Further- ders are marked as follows.
more, since gender-variable adjectives (1) Nouns of high frequency with a
agree in gender with the noun or pronoun stressed -4- in the first syllable are gener-
that they modify, the recognitionof neuter
ally feminine: esta ave, la base, la calle, la
gender pronouns would erroneously imply cdrcel, la carne, la clase, la frase, la (ver-
that adjectives also have a separate in-
dadera) hambre, la llave, la parte, la san-
flected form for the neuter gender, a form
gre, la tarde, la mano, la sal, etc. Of the
which in all cases would be homophonous
eight rules discovered by Dinnes-i.e.,
with the masculine singular form of the rules (38)-(42) and (65)-(67) in Table 1
adjective. It is obvious, therefore, that -this is the only rule which we find use-
Spanish does not have a grammaticalneu- ful. Dinnes suggests that common nouns
ter gender. Of course, these five pronouns with a stressed -a- in the first syllable are
are semantically neuter."4 of the feminine gender as a result of
The semantic and phonemic rules (de- "strong association with the feminine
scribed in Sections 3.1 and 3.2) are an [word-final]a" (p. 489), the most frequent
ordered set of rules, the former applying feminine gender marker.However, Dinnes
before the latter. Thus, regardless of its does not observe that most of these femi-
terminal letter(s), a noun which refers in- nine gender nouns are also bisyllabic, with
variably to one male is of the masculine the majority of these having the vowel -e-
gender (el cura, el abad, el juez, el cen- in their second syllable; these two charac-
turidn) and one which always designates teristics should also be mentioned to stu-
one female is of the feminine gender (Ra- dents as further aids in identifying excep-
quel, Consuelo, Carmen, la madre, la mu- tions of this group. Compare rules (10.1),
jer, Dolores, la huri). Nevertheless, the (10.2), and (10.4) in Table 2 (el papel,
vast majority of nouns which are classified el oro, el nombre, etc.) to which these
for gender on the basis of the sex of their feminine gender notns are exceptions.
referent also terminate in the letters which (2) The other class of exceptions consists
regularly mark nouns of their particular of nouns of Greek origin ending in -ma
grammatical gender, be it masculine (el but which, contraryto rule (3) in Table 2
coronel, el abuelo, el capitdn, el hombre, (la bebida, la distancia, la partida,etc.), are
el director, el dios, el rey) or feminine (la of the masculine gender: el clima, el dra-
reina, Felicidad, la actriz, Encarnacidn, ma, el idioma, el problema, el sistema, el
Gertrudis). tema, and many others (see the Real Aca-
The nouns which are not classified by demia Espaiiola, p. 14).
the semantic rules and which are excep- 3.32. Gender-ambivalentnouns. A rela-
tions to the phonemic rules are discussed tively small number of Spanish nouns
below.
(roughly 1165-or 3%-of the 38,233
3.3. Exceptions to the phonemic rules nouns in the lexicon)'1 are of both gen-
for gender classification. There are even ders. The majority of these nouns can be
well-defined criteria for readily identifying identified as ambivalent by the fact that
the gender of many of the exceptions to they fall into one of two groups.

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TEACHINGTHE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS 873
(1) The largest of these groups consists male as masculine gender forms, there are
of gender-ambivalentnouns which end in also numerous gender-ambivalent nouns
-a and, as masculine gender forms, refer to which end in regular masculine gender
a male being (almost always a male per- markers (-1, -o, -n, -e, and -r) and which
son). Usually as feminine gender forms refer to one female as feminine gender
they refer to a female being (again, gen- forms (and to one male as representative
erally a female person). The most easily of the masculine gender); again, the ani-
identified members of this group are deriv- mate referent is almost always a person.
atives built with the following six deriva- The most readily identified members of
tional suffixes: this group of ambivalent nouns are those
(a) -ata: acrdbata, burdcrata, tedcrata . . . derived with the following three suffixes:
(b) -icola: agricola, horticola, viticola . . (a) -al: criminal, provenzal, rival . ..
(c) -cida: deicida, homicida, parricida .. .
(b) -ante -(i)ente:16 amante, descendiente,
(d) -ista: analista, egoista, novelista . . . residente . . .
(e) -ita: carmelita, israelita, moscovita . .
(f) -ota: cabezota, compatriota, idiota . . . (c) -(i)ense: canadiense, cretense, estadouniden-
se . . .
Other similarly ambivalent nouns are an- Other nouns which are ambivalent in this
gora, atleta, astronauta,bdquira, centinela, same way are:
espia, hincha 'rabid sports fan,' indigena, infiel modelo joven cdmplice mdrtir
guia 'guide,' miscara 'masquerader,'paria, reo virgen consorte
and policia 'policeman, policewoman.' Al- testigo c6nyuge
though as masculine gender nouns they al- hereje
ways refer to a male being, as feminine tigre
gender nouns some of these ambivalent In contrast to marked gender-ambivalent
forms do not refer to a female being (as nouns, which have different referents (one
illustrated above), but rather denote: or both of which is a single animate en-
(a) a group of the persons in question: tity) according to the gender which they
el guardia 'the guardsman' represent, unmarked ambivalent nouns
la guardia 'the guard' (as a corps) often have the same inanimate referent ir-
el policia 'the policeman' respective of the gender which they ex-
la policia 'the police (force)' emplify in a given occurrence.17 In the
(b) a group of inanimate entities: following list the more common gender of
el escolta 'the escort' (one who accompanies such nouns is indicated first:
a woman in public)
la escolta 'the escort' (a group of ships or air- el, la andilisis la, el dote
ese, esa arte la, el margen
planes accompanying a convoy)
el, la linde la, el tilde
(c) a single inanimate referent: el, la mar
el ayuda 'the aide, assistant' el, la prez
la ayuda 'the aid, assistance' It is simpler and pedagogically preferable
el barba 'the actor who plays old men's parts'
for beginning and intermediate students to
la barba 'the beard; the chin'
el calavera 'the hot-brained fellow'
learn the nouns listed above, not as gender-
la calavera 'the skull' ambivalent, but rather as members of the
el guia 'the guide' gender which they usually exemplify. Sim-
la guia 'the guidebook; the guide sign' ilarly, in modern usage the following rare-
el vigia 'the watch, lookout' ly occur as feminine gender nouns, and
la vigia 'the watchtower; the act of watching'
consequently should be taught, even to
el vista 'the customs surveyor' advanced students, as masculine gender
la vista 'the view; sight' rather than gender-ambivalent nouns:
(2) In the same way as many gender- azicar, calor, color, cutis, fin, origen, pro,
ambivalent nouns ending in -a refer to one and puente.

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874 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)

In addition to gender-ambivalentnouns most frequent Spanish nouns the student


there are some nouns which are homopho- needs to learn only the 13 rules and the
nous with semantically unrelated nouns of 25 exceptions (4 pairs of homophonous
the other gender (e.g., el cura 'the priest' : nouns and 21 individual exceptions) given
la cura 'the cure,' el papa 'the pope' : la in Table 3. The rules as a whole are 97.3%
papa 'the potato,' el radio 'the radius' : la accurate, which is higher than the accu-
radio 'the radio'; see Ramsey, p. 34, for racy of the larger number of rules in any
other similar pairs). For pedagogical sim- of the six treatments analyzed in Section
plicity we categorize such pairs of homoph- 1 of this study.
onous nouns with gender-ambivalent A comparisonof Tables 2 and 3 reveals
nouns; see Table 2. several rules in the former which are un-
3.33. Individual exceptions. The memo- important for beginning and intermediate
rization of the gender of individual nouns level students. These rules deal largely
can now be restricted to those which (1) with numerous classes of learned words:
as representativeof a given gender cannot (1) feminine gender nouns marked by un-
refer invariably to one male or one female, stressed -is (silepsis 'syllepsis,'amigdalitis 'tonsi-
llitis,' litis 'lawsuit'),
(2) do not follow the phonemic rules for
(2) masculinegender nouns ending in -i, -m, -t,
gender classification, and (3) do not fall -x, and -y (zaquizami 'garret,'rdquiem'requiem,'
into classes of exceptions. Fortunately, fagot 'bassoon,'antrax 'anthrax,'maguey 'Ameri-
when following the format of gender clas- can agave'), and
sification presented in this study, the num- (3) numerous gender-ambivalentnouns, espe-
ber of such individual exceptions is small; cially those marked by the derivationalsuffixes
-ata, -icola, -cida, -ita, -ota, -(i)ente, and -(i)ense
furthermore, the very frequency of many (autdcrata,'autocrat,'terricola'inhabitantof the
of these exceptions (e.g., el dia, la leche, la earth,' fratricida 'fratricide,'betlemita 'native of
noche, etc.) aids in learning them. The Bethlehem,' candiota 'Cretan,'escribiente'aman-
most frequent (and, hence the pedagogi- uensis,' exponente 'exponent,' jalisciense 'native
of Jalisco,'montevidense'native of Montevideo').
cally most important) exceptions are iden-
tified in the following section. Unmarked gender-ambivalent nouns hav-
ing inanimate referents (prez 'honor,' dote
4. Pedagogical implementation. At any
'dowry,' tilde 'tilde') are similarly trivial at
given time during their study of Spanish beginning and intermediate levels of in-
students should be presented only those struction and, therefore, are also omitted
parts of Table 2 which deal with the vo- in Table 3. As the need for such rules, for
cabulary that they are expected to know. such ambivalent nouns, and for other ex-
By the time they reach the intermediate ceptions'8 arises the teacher adds them to
level their vocabulary consists largely of the frameworkgiven in Table 3. The stage
that given in A Compact Spanish Vocabu- is eventually reached in which advanced
lary. All of the nouns in that booklet can students use the complete format for the
be classified for gender according to the identification of the gender of nouns (Ta-
simplified framework given in Table 3; ble 2).
consequently, it is necessary that inter- Therefore, it is necessarythat the teacher
mediate level students be familiar only know the criteria for gender classification
with this simplified framework.
given in both Tables 2 and 3. In classes on
Part C of Table 3 contains all of the teaching methodology prospective teachers
nouns in A Compact Spanish Vocabulary can acquire a working knowledge of the
which are exceptions to the rules given in proposed format by classifying extensive
Part B of the table. In other words, in or- lists of nouns accordingto the criteriagiven
der to identify the gender(s) of the 935 in these two tables.

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TEACHING THE GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS 875

IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM itself a correct the errorby referringthe student to


greater amount of time (Stockwell et the rule or exception in the table which
al., p. 47) and a more systematic type of that particular noun exemplifies. As the
study need to be devoted to the problem of need for such correction decreases, it will
gender. Either the textbook or the teacher be obvious that the students are internal-
should provide the student with a copy of izing the criteria for the gender classifica-
Table 2 or Table 3 (depending upon the tion of Spanish nouns and are mastering
level of the class). Then, when the stu- one of the most difficult problems of Span-
dent makes an errorin the gender identifi- ish grammar.
cation of a noun, the teacher can readily
TABLE 3
GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS OF HIGH FREQUENCY
CRITERIA FOR
CLASSIFICATION FEMININE GENDER NOUNS MASCULINE GENDER NOUNS
A. Sex of the (1) one female: la madre,la vaca, (2) one male: el hombre,el gallo,
referent Juana Felipe
B. Terminal (3) -a: la fantasia (9) any terminalexcept those given
letter(s) (4) -d: la edad in rules (3)-(8), especially
of the noun (5) -z: la nariz (9.1) -1: el metal
(6) -idn: la canci6n (9.2) -o: el abandono
(7) -umbre: la cumbre (9.3) -n: el jardin
(8) -ie: la especie (9.4) -e: el bosque
(9.5) -r: el dolor
(9.6) -s: el interds
and also
(9.7) other terminals:
el espiritu,el reZoj
C. Exceptions I. Classes of exceptions
(10) commonnouns with stressed-4- (11) nouns of Greekoriginending
in the first syllable: in -ma:
ave (f.) la frase la mano el clima el problema
la base hambre(f.) la sal el drama el sistema
la calle la Hlave el idioma el tema
la circel la parte
la carne la sangre
la clase
II. Gender-ambivalentnouns
Nouns which are markedas ambivalent
(12) Those which end in -a and, as masculine gender nouns, refer to a male.
Especially those markedby the derivationalsuffix -ista: artista
(13) Those which end in -1, -o, -n, -e, or -r and, as feminine gender nouns,
referto a female: testigo,joven
Especiallythosemarkedby the derivational
suffixes
-al: criminal
-ante: amante,habitante
Pairs of unmarked homophonous nouns of opposite genders:
capital,frente, orden,pez
III. Individual exceptions
la catedral la corriente la labor el dia el matiz
la miel la corte
lapiel lafe laley
la seiialla gente
la leche
la imagen la mente
la razd'n la muerte
la nieve
la noche
la nube
la torre

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876 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania (61 (Dec. 1978)

NOTES be adopted, but that students nevertheless be


'Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen, and made aware that masculine gender nouns and
John W. Martin, The Grammatical Structures feminine gender nouns usually do not denote
of English and Spanish, Contrastive Structure male and female referents.
Series (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 7Teaching Spanish: A Critical Bibliographic
1965), p. 47. Survey (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1974),
2See William E. Bull, Spanish for Teachers: p. 68.
Applied Linguistics (New York: Ronald, 1965), 8Charles F. Hockett, A. Course in Modern
pp. 103-10; William E. Bull, Laurel A. Briscoe, Linguistics (New York: Macmillan, 1958), p.
and Enrique E. Lamadrid, Spanish for Com- 231.
munication: Level Three (Boston: Houghton 9Gramitica de la lengua espahiola, 9th ed.
Mifflin, 1974), pp. 156-58 and 445-47; John B. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1931), p. 10.
Dalbor, Beginning College Spanish: From 1oSee Tomias Navarro TomBs, Cuestionario
Sounds to Structures (New York: Random lingiiistico hispanoamericano, 2nd ed. (Buenos
House, 1972), pp. 31, 163-64, 453-54, and 620; Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1945), I,
Zenia Sacks Da Silva, A Concept Approach to 64.
Spanish, 3rd ed. (New York: Harper and Row, "See Ramsey, p. 28, and Dinnes, p. 488.
1975), pp. 393-95; Iris Sinding Dinnes, "Must 1"For the sake of pedagogical and expository
All Unclassified Spanish Words Be Memorized simplicity the phonemically-based rules for the
for Gender?" Hispania, 54 (September 1971), gender identification of nouns are treated in this
487-92; Hayward Keniston, Spanish Syntax List study as orthographically-based rules. It is obvi-
(New York: Holt, 1937), p. 42; Marathon ously preferable that these gender markers be
Montrose Ramsey, A Textbook of Modern presented also to students in orthographic rather
Spanish, rev. Robert K. Spaulding (New York: than phonemic form.
Holt, 1956), pp. 24-28; and Stockwell et al., pp. 13See Bull, p. 108, and Bull et al., SFC:
42-54. Level Three, p. 157.
3In listing the number of rules for each study 14See Dwight L. Bolinger et al., Modern
we consider each discrete item which the stu- Spanish: A Project of the Modern Language
dent must learn as one rule, although the au- Association, 3rd ed., rev. Ronald C. Turner
thor(s) of the work(s) consulted may collapse (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973),
several such items into one statement. For ex- p. 111.
ample, although Dinnes lists "words ending in 15These figures are abstracted from the statis-
a, ad, ud, i6n, ie, and umbre" (p. 488) as one tics presented by Bull, p. 109.
rule for feminine gender nouns, in effect this
16There are some archaic and popular words
statement is six rules and is so treated in Table 1. which are built with this suffix (as well as with
4See the Preface of A Compact Spanish Vo- -al and -ista, mentioned above) which are not am-
cabulary. bivalent. Among these are the contrasting forms
5Compare Bull, pp. 108-09, and Bull et al., acompaiiante : acompahanta, presidente : presi-
p. 156. denta, colegial : colegiala, modisto : modista, and
6Bull's objection to the terms "masculine" and numerous others; see Navarro Tomis, pp. 64-65
"feminine" as the names of the two genders is and 75.
theoretically valid but pedagogically unimpor- 17The members of a few such pairs do differ
tant. From a terminological viewpoint what is in meaning:
essential for second-language learners is (1) that el aroma 'the perfume, la aroma 'the flower of
labels be used which distinguish the two genders fragrance' the aromatic myrrh-
from each other and (2) that these labels be tree'
generally accepted by and familiar to most lan- el canal 'the canal, la canal 'the gutter,
guage teachers and students. The first criterion channel' conduit'
can be satisfied by numerous terms: either the el cometa 'the comet' la cometa 'the kite'
traditional labels-"masculine" and "feminine" el crisma 'the holy-oil' la crisma 'the head'
gender nouns-or "o-nouns" and "a-nouns," as (popular)
proposed by Bull et al., Spanish for Communica- el fantasma 'the phan- la fantasma 'the scare-
tion: Level One (1972), p. 59. This criterion tom' crow'
could also be met by other terms ("gender A" I8Examples of such less common exceptions
and "gender B" or "gender 1" and "gender 2"). (which are not given in Table 3) are the femi-
But since the pair "masculine" and "feminine" nine gender nouns tarde, col, nao, sartin, fiebre,
are the terms most familiar to language teachers segur, mies, palmacristi, tribu, troj, and grey
and students, we propose (for the sake of ease and the masculine gender nouns axioma, mapa,
of communication) that a new terminology not cdsped, cdliz, camidn, and Apocalipsis.

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