Abstract In this article, I consider the notions of crosslinguistic categories and comparative concepts as they apply to a diminutive category in Walman, a language in the Torricelli family spoken in Papua New Guinea. I discuss three interpretations of the question of whether the Walman diminutive is a gender. One interpretation is the question whether the Walman diminutive is an instance of a crosslinguistic category of gender. I argue that this interpretation is problematic since it assumes the existence of crosslinguistic categories and I argue that there is no reason to believe that crosslinguistic categories exist, since the similarities among languages can be explained without appeal to crosslinguistic categories. A second interpretation involves a question of how the diminutive fits into the grammar of Walman, whether the diminutive should be considered a third value of a feature in the grammar of Walman which has two clear values, masculine and feminine. I argue that the evidence supports the view that the Walman diminutive is not a gender in this sense. The third interpretation is whether the Walman diminutive is an instance of a comparative concept of gender. But the answer to that question depends on how one defines gender as a comparative concept.

中文翻译：

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跨语言类别，比较概念和沃尔曼小写

摘要在本文中，我考虑了跨语言类别和比较概念的概念，因为它们适用于沃尔曼（一种在巴布亚新几内亚使用的Torricelli家族中的语言）中的小类。我讨论了关于沃尔曼小矮人是否是性别的问题的三种解释。一种解释是这样的问题：华尔曼身材矮小的人是否是性别的跨语言范畴的一个实例。我认为这种解释是有问题的，因为它假定存在跨语言类别，并且我认为没有理由相信跨语言类别的存在，因为可以解释语言之间的相似性而无需使用跨语言类别。第二种解释涉及一个问题，即小量词如何适合沃尔曼的语法，小数是否应该被认为是Walman语法中特征的第三个值，该特征具有两个明确的值，即男性和女性。我认为证据支持这种观点，即沃尔曼小身材不是性别。第三种解释是，“沃尔曼小矮人”是否是性别比较概念的一个实例。但是，这个问题的答案取决于人们如何将性别定义为比较概念。