From: G&P
Message: 66392
Date: 2010-08-08
>I would like to know whether there exists any treatise, essay, book, etc. that offers a plausible explanation for the origin of grammatical gender in the Indo-European languages.
Yes, it does. You should start with some of the standard works on Indo-European.
W P Lehmann, “Theoretical Bases of Indo-European linguistics” has a small discussion on pages 141 and 152-153. Szemerényi “Introduction to Indo-European linguistics” also has some discussion, on pages 155-157, 192-3, 203 and 211.
Peter