Classroom:LING2208 - Gender Annotation in Norwegian Bokmål

Eli Muus

In my text 'Simons katt' I have chosen to annotate the nouns for gender only in the stem of the noun and not in the suffix. The suffixes I have typically annotated for number and definiteness. Here is an example of some typical noun annotations for gender:

Så lander flua på lampa som står ved stolen til eieren, så katten hopper på lampa og bekker den.

så

så

DEG

PRT

lander
land	er
land	PRES
V

flua
flu	a
fly	SGDEF
NFEM

på

på

onLOC

PREP

lampa
lamp	a
lamp	SGDEF
NFEM

som

som

PNrel

står
stå	r
stand	PRES
V

ved

ved

by

PREP

stolen
stol	en
chair	SGDEF
NMASC

til

til

DIR

PREP

eieren
eier	en
owner	DEFSG
NMASC

,

,

PUN

så

så

DEG

PRT

katten
katt	en
cat	DEFSG
NMASC

hopper
hopp	er
jump	PRES
V

på

på

LOC

PREP

lampa
lamp	a
lamp	SGDEF
NFEM

og

og

and

CONJ

bekker
bekk	er
	PRES
V

den

den

it3SGCOMMDEF

DET

.

PUN

It would have been possible to do this annotation differently, for example to annotate the stem only as a noun and to annotate the suffix for the gender, as this is where the gender is visible, as the suffix varies depending on gender of the noun. I have followed the convention of other annotators in TypeCraft in choosing to annotate the stem for gender.

It would also be possible to annotate both the stem and the suffix for gender. This would be particularly useful if the stem noun is perceived to have one gender, but the suffix reflects another gender. One could then quite easily illustrate this phenomenon in the annotation. I initially thought this was the case with a few of the nouns in my text, but have since realised that my first intuition was wrong.

In my text I use referential pronouns that can be used to refer to both masculine and feminine nouns. I have annotated these as being common gender. See example below:

Men så hører han den innimellom, og da hopper den på gardinene og revner gardinene.

men

men

but

CONJC

så

så

DEG

PRT

hører
hør	er
hear	PRES
V

han

han

he3SG

PN

den

den

it3SGCOMMDEF

DET

innimellom

innimellom

occasionally

ADVtemp

,

,

PUN

og

og

and

CONJ

da

da

hopper
hopp	er
jump	PRES
V

den

den

it3SGCOMMDEF

DET

på

på

onLOC

PREP

gardinene
gardin	ene
curtain	PLDEF
NFEM

og

og

and

CONJ

revner
revn	er
tear	PRES
V

gardinene
gardin	ene
curtain	PLDEF
NFEM

.

PUN

Note that the two 'den' in this example refers back to two different nouns. The first refers back to 'flua', a feminine noun in a previous sentence. The second refers back to 'han'/'katten', a masculine pronoun/noun.