Theoretical grammar of english

6.General characteristics of the noun as a part of speech. The problem of gender. Means of expressing gender.
The N as part of speech is recognized by all libguists. A notional POS. Semantically, n-s have the m-ng of substance (express substantivity), names of objects. Morphologically, the n has 2 grammatical categories: № & case(common & genitive); possesses typical word-building suffixes (friendship, freedom,, whiteness) Syntactically, Funct-ns: a) comb-ng with Ws to form phrases, with preceding & follow. Adj (large room; times immemorial), with a preceding N in common & g-ve case (iron bar; boy’s map), with Vs (play games), Adv (the man there; the then president), prep (in a house, house of rest), is preceded by art (the/a map). In a sent can be the subj or the pred-ve or an obj, an attr & adv. modif. It can also make part of each of thesePOS preceded by a prep. Right-hand combinability: infinitives, a finite verb form (a n and a finite verb form build a clause when taken together).
Gender (G). In En is not richly developed, some say it doesn’t exist. It is defined in terms of the proN substitute he, she, it, which may be used in its place. G involves not only substit-n but also concord. G – a set of syntactic subclasses of Ns controlling concordance. G is based on 2 oppos-ns: 1 functions in the whole set of Ns, dividing’em into person/non-pers Ns; 2^nd – in the subdivision of pers Ns- masc & feminine Ns. 3 G-s: the neuter (non-pers), the masc ( man, boy), femin ( woman, bride). Person Ns-boy , non-pers – tree, love, cat, crowd). Pers Ns can have common G (person, friend, doctor). En Ns can show sex of the referent either by means of being combined with certain notional Ws used as sex-indicators or by suffixal deriv-n (boy-fr, washer-man; he-bear, she-bear, actor, actress).