gender and Grammar

[JR Gardner]

I've been looking through our library here at Iowa, also Michigan and
Indiana, as well as the CRLC and RLIN with no success (search string:
k=india and grammar and gender).  I've found a few general overviews (19
hits with search string k=gender and grammar) but these tend to go toward
the socio-political side of male dominant archetypes in society,
oppression of the female, rejection of gaya, all grammar is a form of
misogyny, etc.

In short-- does anyone know of any sanskrit-specific studies of
grammatical gender?  Not so much the technical linguistic side as the
sociolinguistic implications.  I am quite intrigued to find every case of
tanuu' in the RV to be feminine and I'm trying to see what there is to be
learned--if anything--about the relationship of grammatical gender to any
exegetical level of interpretation.  Could it relate to the deities
consorts by indirect implication?

Kind thanks in advance,

jrg
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John Robert Gardner      Obermann Center
School of Religion         for Advanced Studies
University of Iowa       University of Iowa
319-335-2164             319-335-4034
http://vedavid.org       http://www.uiowa.edu/~obermann/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is ludicrous to consider language as anything other
than that of which it is the transformation.