Gender is arguably the most puzzling and fascinating of all grammatical categories. In this new, comprehensive account of gender systems (including noun class systems), Greville Corbett describes both the diversity of the data and the common patterns which emerge through discussion of over 200 languages, from English and Russian to Archi and Chichewa. He also gives more detailed analyses of individual languages in order to provide clear illustrations of specific types of gender system.

1. Introduction; 2. Gender assignment I: semantic systems; 3. Gender assignment II: formal systems; 4. The psycholinguistic status of gender assignment; 5. Gender agreement; 6. Establishing the number of genders; 7. Target genders: syncretism and enforced gender forms; 8. Hybrid nouns and the agreement hierarchy; 9. Gender resolution rules; 10. Generalisations and prospects; References; Author index; Language index; Subject index.