Anca-Andreea Pavel[1]

p. 327 - 334

Abstract

The choice of the topic is motivated by the observation of the ambiguities that arise in current Romanian language, the only Romance language that has preserved the neuter gender from Latin (in French, Spanish and Italian, there is no neuter gender). Will it disappear from Romanian too? Uncertainty is a first step. This analysis is based on the temporary criteria: the correct variants provided by the explanatory dictionaries (the editions of 1998 and 2009) are compared with the results of surveys performed on two generations: under and over 20 years. The nouns were chosen according to their frequency in Romanian and the errors observed in ads, commercials and interviews. There were used also in the investigation groups of two nouns that have the same singular termination, but different plural forms (polonic, -e; batic, -uri).

Keywords: Romanian, plural form of neuter nouns, ambiguity

[1]Anca Andreea Pavel, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at “Mihail Kogălniceanu” University, Iaşi, Romania; contact : Apavel_11_09.at.yahoo.com

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