Английского

CHAPTER VI
NOUN: ENDER 
§ 1. There is a peculiarly regular contradiction between the 
presentation of gender in English by theoretical treatises and 
practical manuals. Whereas theoretical treatises define the gender 
subcategorisation of English nouns as purely lexical or "semantic", 
practical manuals of English grammar do invariably include the 
description of the English gender in their subject matter of 
immediate instruction. 
In particular, a whole ten pages of A. I. Smirnitsky's theoretical 
"Morphology of English" are devoted to proving the non-existence 
of gender in English either in the grammatical, or even in the 
strictly lexico-grammatical sense [Смирницкий, (2), 139-148]. On 
the other hand, the well-known practical "English grammar" by M. 
A. Ganshina and N. M. Vasilevskaya, after denying the existence 
of grammatical gender in English by way of an introduction to the 
topic, still presents a pretty comprehensive description of the 
would-be non-existent gender distinctions of the English noun as a 
part of speech [Ganshina, Vasilevskaya, 40 ff.]. 
That the gender division of nouns in English is expressed not as 
variable forms of words, but as nounal classification (which is not 
in the least different from the expression of substantive gender in 
other languages, including Russian), admits of no argument. How-
ever, the question remains, whether this classification has any seri-
ous grammatical relevance. Closer observation of the correspond-
ing lingual data cannot but show that the English gender does have 
such a relevance. 
§ 2. The category of gender is expressed in English by the obliga-
tory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third 
person. These serve as specific gender classifiers 

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of nouns, being potentially reflected on each entry of the noun in 
speech. 
The category of gender is strictly oppositional. It is formed by two 
oppositions related to each other on a hierarchical basis. 
One opposition functions in the whole set of nouns, dividing them 
into person (human) nouns and non-person (non-human) nouns. 
The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only, 
dividing them into masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Thus, the 
first, general opposition can be referred to as the upper opposition 
in the category of gender, while the second, partial opposition can 
be referred to as the lower opposition in this category. 
As a result of the double oppositional correlation, a specific system 
of three genders arises, which is somewhat misleadingly repre-
sented by the traditional terminology: the neuter (i.e. non-person) 
gender, the masculine (i.e. masculine person) gender, the feminine 
(i.e. feminine person) gender. 
The strong member of the upper opposition is the human subclass 
of nouns, its sememic mark being "person", or "personality". The 
weak member of the opposition comprises both inanimate and 
animate non-person nouns. Here belong such nouns as tree, moun-
tain, love, etc.; cat, swallow, ant, etc.; society, crowd, association, 
etc.; bull and cow, cock and hen, horse and mare, etc. 
In cases of oppositional reduction, non-person nouns and their sub-
stitute (it) are naturally used in the position of neutralisation. E.g.: 
Suddenly something moved in the darkness ahead of us. Could it 
be a man, in this desolate place, at this time of night? The object of 
her maternal affection was nowhere to be found. It had disap-
peared, leaving the mother and nurse desperate. 
The strong member of the lower opposition is the feminine sub-
class of person nouns, its sememic mark being "female sex". Here 
belong such nouns as woman, girl, mother, bride, etc. The mascu-
line subclass of person nouns comprising such words as man, boy, 
father, bridegroom, etc. makes up the weak member of the opposi-
tion. 
The oppositional structure of the category of gender can be shown 
schematically on the following diagram (see Fig. I). 

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55
GENDER 
Feminine Nouns Masculine Nouns 
Fig. 1 
A great many person nouns in English are capable of expressing 
both feminine and masculine person genders by way of the pro-
nominal correlation in question. These are referred to as nouns of 
the "common gender". Here belong such words as person, parent, 
friend, cousin, doctor, president, etc. E.g.: 
The President of our Medical Society isn't going to be happy about 
the suggested way of cure. In general she insists on quite another 
kind of treatment in cases like that. 
The capability of expressing both genders makes the gender dis-
tinctions in the nouns of the common gender into a variable cate-
gory. On the other hand, when there is no special need to indicate 
the sex of the person referents of these nouns, they are used neu-
trally as masculine, i.e. they correlate with the masculine third per-
son pronoun. 
In the plural, all the gender distinctions are neutralised in the im-
mediate explicit expression, though they are rendered obliquely 
through the correlation with the singular.