Changing gender systems: a multidisciplinary approach

This article addresses various issues in the diachrony of gender marking, such as the origin and typology of gender systems, pathways of change and the question of directionality in relation to the Agreement Hierarchy, and the semantic basis of changes in gender systems in relation to the Individuation Hierarchy. It also offers an overview of recent multidisciplinary approaches to the evolution of gender systems including language acquisition research, contact linguistics, and theoretical syntax