Ziej is a woman and het is a girl: The role of referent characteristics in pronominal gender variation in Limburgian

Abstract

In Limburgian dialects, women can be referred to with neuter het (lit. ‘it’) or feminine ziej, both meaning ‘she’ (e.g., Bakker 1992). This thesis addresses the question to what extent the variation in pronoun gender for female referents in Limburgian dialects is driven by characteristics of the referent. I conclude that the variation in pronoun gender for female reference in Limburgian dialects is governed mainly by a woman’s age.