Gender in Arabic between Linguistic Rules and Cultural Heritage

(A sociolinguistic approach)

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on gender in Arabic, and answers a major question: What is the impact of the social, cultural and anthropological dimension on languages’ classification of gender in general and in Arabic in particular? A group of subquestions fell under it: What are the grammatical features that distinguish grammatical gender in Arabic? What is the effect of grammatical gender on Arabic sentence structure? The topic required employing the descriptive approach to reach results, most notably: that gender rules in languages are shaped by cultural and societal legacie . The Arabic grammatical theory confirms that there is a great distinction between the masculine and the feminine. We notice this in many grammatical sections, including: demonstrative nouns, relative nouns, verb attribution, and others. The ancient Arab linguists’ perception of grammatical gender reflected Arab culture, as the masculine is the origin of the language and the feminine is a branch of it. Because remembrance is the origin of creation; Hence, grammarians believe that the masculine does not need a sign, unlike the feminine.