What is gender in relation to the Russian language, how many genders are there in the Russian language and which ones are distinguished?

Schoolchildren begin to become familiar with this category in primary school, gradually deepening and consolidating their knowledge. In the fifth grade, information about the genus is replenished and consolidated on more complex material.

How many genders are there in Russian?

The following system is presented in Russian:

• Feminine gender.
• Masculine.
• Neuter gender.
• Common gender.

The gender of words used only in the plural is not determined.

How many genders does a noun have in Russian?

To determine the gender of a noun, we ask a semantic question about this word: is it mine? She is mine? is it mine?

As can be seen from the table, gender is determined only for singular nouns. Nouns used only in the plural (trousers, glasses, sleigh) are outside the category of gender.

When determining the gender of nouns, schoolchildren often have difficulty with words like “knowledgeable”, “clever”, “fidget” and the like. For example: he was a big fidget and she was a big fidget. Are these words feminine or masculine? This is where the question posed in the title arises: how many genders are there in the Russian language? Scientists have two points of view on this matter: some classify them as masculine or feminine, depending on the context, others classify such words into a special gender - general.

Indeclinable foreign language nouns also cause difficulties. In writing, they resemble words related to the neuter gender. Indeed, most of them belong precisely to this genus, but there are (let's say) exceptions to the rule.

Thus, according to the literary norm, the noun “coffee” is masculine. It would be incorrect to say “my coffee.” This is a mistake, the correct option is “my coffee”.

The noun "euro", by analogy with other names of monetary units, is masculine. By the same principle, the nouns “suluguni”, “sirocco”, “penalty” refer to the masculine. Based on the same analogy, the nouns "avenue", "salami", "kohlrabi" are feminine.

If you have any doubts about the gender of a noun, you should consult Russian dictionaries.

How to determine the gender of an adjective?

Unlike a noun, for which the gender category is unchangeable, for an adjective it is a changeable category and is determined depending on the context. The rule by which the gender of this part of speech is determined is as follows: the gender of the adjective is determined by the word being defined, that is, by the noun.

For example:

• The girl was wearing a beautiful (s.r.) dress. (“Dress” is mine, therefore it is neuter, which means the adjective “beautiful” is neuter).
• He was a handsome (m.) man. The street is beautiful (f.r.).

Indeclinable adjectives are also distinguished. For example: khaki pants.

Now you know the answer to the question of how many genders there are in the Russian language. We also analyzed their definition using examples. It is very important to be able to determine the gender of a noun or adjective - this will help to avoid grammatical errors.

This is an independent part of speech that denotes an object and answers the questions who? What?
The meaning of an object expressed nouns, combines the names of a wide variety of objects and phenomena, namely: 1) the names of specific cabbage soup and objects (house, tree, notebook, book, briefcase, bed, lamp); 2) names of living beings (man, engineer, girl, boy, deer, mosquito); 3) names of various substances (oxygen, gasoline, lead, sugar, salt); 4) names of various natural and social phenomena (storm, frost, rain, holiday, war); 5) names of abstract properties and signs, actions and states (freshness, whiteness, blueness, illness, expectation, murder).
Initial form noun- nominative singular.
Nouns There are: proper (Moscow, Rus', Sputnik) and common nouns (country, dream, night), animate (horse, elk, brother) and inanimate (table, field, dacha).
Nouns belong to the masculine (friend, youth, deer), feminine (girlfriend, grass, land) and neuter (window, sea, field) gender. Names nouns change according to cases and numbers, that is, they decline. Nouns have three declension (aunt, uncle, Maria - I declension; horse, gorge, genius - II declension; mother, night, quiet - III declension).
In a sentence nouns usually act as a subject or object, but can also be any other part of a sentence. For example: When the soul in chains, screams in my heart yearning, and the heart longs for boundless freedom (K. Balmont). I lay in the scent of azaleas (V. Bryusov)

Proper and common nouns

Proper nouns- these are the names of individuals, individual objects. Proper nouns include: 1) first names, surnames, nicknames, nicknames (Peter, Ivanov, Sharik); 2) geographical names (Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia); 3) astronomical names (Jupiter, Venus, Saturn); 4) names of holidays (New Year, Teacher's Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day); 5) names of newspapers, magazines, works of art, enterprises (the newspaper “Trud”, the novel “Resurrection”, the publishing house “Prosveshchenie”), etc.
Common nouns They call homogeneous objects that have something in common, the same, some kind of similarity (person, bird, furniture).
All names own are written with a capital letter (Moscow, Arctic), some are also placed in quotation marks (the Cosmos cinema, the Evening Moscow newspaper).
In addition to differences in meaning and spelling proper nouns have a number of grammatical features: 1) are not used in the plural (except in cases of designating different objects and persons with the same name: We have two Ira and three Olya in our class); 2) cannot be combined with numerals.
Proper nouns can turn into common nouns, and common nouns- V own, for example: Narcissus (the name of a handsome young man in ancient Greek mythology) - narcissus (flower); Boston (city in the USA) - boston (woolen fabric), boston (slow waltz), boston (card game); labor - newspaper "Trud".

Animate and inanimate nouns

Animate nouns serve as names of living beings (people, animals, birds); answer the question who?
Inanimate nouns serve as names for inanimate objects, as well as objects of the plant world; answer the question what? Initially, in the Russian language, the category of animate-inanimate was formed as a semantic one. Gradually, with the development of language, this category became grammatical, therefore the division of nouns into animate And inanimate does not always coincide with the division of everything that exists in nature into living and nonliving.
An indicator of the animation or inanimateness of a noun is the coincidence of a number of grammatical forms. Animated and inanimate nouns differ from each other in the accusative plural form. U animate nouns this form coincides with the genitive case form, and inanimate nouns- with the nominative case form, for example: no friends - I see friends (but: no tables - I see tables), no brothers - I see brothers (but: no lights - I see lights), no horses - I see horses (but: no shadows - I see shadows), no children - I see children (but: no seas - I see seas).
For masculine nouns (except for nouns ending in -a, -я), this difference is preserved in the singular, for example: no friend - I see a friend (but: no house - I see a house).
TO animate noun may include nouns that, according to their meaning, should be considered inanimate, for example: “our nets brought in a dead man”; discard the trump ace, sacrifice the queen, buy dolls, paint nesting dolls.
TO inanimate noun may include nouns that, according to the meaning they express, should be classified as animated, for example: study pathogenic microbes; neutralize typhus bacilli; observe the embryo in its development; collect silkworm larvae, believe in your people; gather huge crowds, arm armies.

Concrete, abstract, collective, real, singular nouns

According to the characteristics of the expressed meaning, nouns can be divided into several groups: 1) concrete nouns(chair, suit, room, roof), 2) abstract, or abstract, nouns(struggle, joy, good, evil, morality, whiteness), 3) collective nouns(animal, fool, foliage, linen, furniture); 4) real nouns(cycle: gold, milk, sugar, honey); 5) singular nouns(pea, grain of sand, straw, pearl).
Specific are nouns that denote phenomena or objects of reality. They can be combined with cardinal, ordinal and collective numbers and form plural forms. For example: boy - boys, two boys, second boy, two boys; table - tables, two tables, second table.
Abstract, or abstract, are nouns that denote any abstract action, state, quality, property or concept. Abstract nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with the words many, few, how many, etc. For example: grief - a lot of grief, little grief. How much grief!
Collective are called nouns that denote a collection of persons or objects as an indivisible whole. Collective nouns have only the singular form and are not combined with numerals, for example: youth, old man, foliage, birch forest, aspen forest. Wed: Old people gossiped for a long time about the lives of young people and the interests of youth. - Whose are you, old man? Peasants, in essence, have always remained owners. - In no country in the world has the peasantry ever been truly free. On the first of September all children will go to school. - The children gathered in the yard and waited for the adults to arrive. All students successfully passed state exams. - Students take an active part in the work of charitable foundations. The nouns old people, peasantry, children, students are collective, the formation of plural forms from them is impossible.
Real are nouns that denote a substance that cannot be divided into its component parts. These words can name chemical elements, their compounds, alloys, medicines, various materials, types of food products and agricultural crops, etc. Real nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with words naming units of measure kilogram, liter, ton. For example: sugar - a kilogram of sugar, milk - two liters of milk, wheat - a ton of wheat.
Singular nouns are a type real nouns. These nouns name one instance of those objects that make up the set. Wed: pearl - pearl, potato - potato, sand - grain of sand, pea - pea, snow - snowflake, straw - straw.

Gender of nouns

Genus- this is the ability of nouns to be combined with forms of compatible words specific for each generic variety: my house, my hat, my window.
Based on gender nouns are divided into three groups: 1) masculine nouns(house, horse, sparrow, uncle), 2) feminine nouns(water, earth, dust, rye), 3) neuter nouns(face, sea, tribe, gorge).
In addition, there is a small group common nouns, which can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons (crybaby, touchy-feely, youngster, upstart, grabber).
The grammatical meaning of gender is created by the system of case endings of a given noun in the singular (thus gender of nouns distinguished only in the singular).

Masculine, feminine and neuter gender of nouns

TO masculine include: 1) nouns with a base on a hard or soft consonant and a zero ending in the nominative case (table, horse, reed, knife, cry); 2) some nouns with the ending -а (я) such as grandfather, uncle; 3) some nouns with endings -о, -е such as saraishko, bread, little house; 4) noun journeyman.
TO feminine refers to: 1) most nouns with the ending -a (ya) (grass, aunt, earth) in the nominative case; 2) part of the nouns with a base on a soft consonant, as well as on zh and sh and a zero ending in the nominative case (laziness, rye, quiet).
TO neuter include: 1) nouns ending in -о, -е in the nominative case (window, field); 2) ten nouns starting with -mya (burden, time, tribe, flame, stirrup, etc.); 3) noun “child”.
The nouns doctor, professor, architect, deputy, guide, author, etc., naming a person by profession, type of activity, are classified as masculine. However, they can also refer to females. Coordination of definitions in this case is subject to the following rules: 1) a non-separate definition must be put in the masculine form, for example: A young doctor Sergeeva appeared at our site. A new version of the article of the law was proposed by the young deputy Petrova; 2) a separate definition after the proper name should be placed in the feminine form, for example: Professor Petrova, already known to the trainees, successfully operated on the patient. The predicate must be put in the feminine form if: 1) the sentence contains a proper noun standing before the predicate, for example: Director Sidorova received a prize. Tour guide Petrova took the students through the oldest streets of Moscow; 2) the form of the predicate is the only indicator that we are talking about a woman, and it is important for the writer to emphasize this, for example: The school director turned out to be a good mother. Note. Such constructions should be used with great caution, since not all of them correspond to the norms of book and written speech. Common nouns Some nouns with endings -а (я) can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons. These are nouns of a general gender, for example: crybaby, touchy, sneak, slob, quiet. Depending on the gender of the person they denote, these nouns can be classified as either feminine or masculine: a little crybaby is a little crybaby, such a mischief is such a mischief, a terrible slob is a terrible slob. In addition to similar words, common nouns may include: 1) unchangeable surnames: Makarenko, Malykh, Defieux, Michon, Hugo, etc.; 2) colloquial forms of some proper names: Sasha, Valya, Zhenya. The words doctor, professor, architect, deputy, tour guide, author, which name a person by profession or type of activity, do not belong to the general nouns. They are masculine nouns. General nouns are emotionally charged words, have a pronounced evaluative meaning, are used mainly in colloquial speech, and therefore are not characteristic of scientific and official business styles of speech. By using them in a work of art, the author seeks to emphasize the conversational nature of the statement. For example: - You see how it is, on someone else’s side. Everything turns out hateful for her. No matter what you see, it’s not the same, it’s not like mom’s. Right? - Oh, I don’t know! She's a crybaby, that's all! Aunt Enya laughed a little. Such a kind laugh, light sounds and leisurely, like her gait. - Well, yes! You are our man, a knight. You won't shed tears. And she's a girl. Tender. Mom and Dad (T. Polikarpova). Gender of indeclinable nouns Foreign language common nouns are distributed by gender as follows: The masculine gender includes: 1) names of male persons (dandy, maestro, porter); 2) names of animals and birds (chimpanzees, cockatoos, hummingbirds, kangaroos, ponies, flamingos); 3) the words coffee, penalty, etc. The feminine gender includes the names of female persons (Miss, Frau, Lady). The neuter gender includes the names of inanimate objects (coat, muffler, neckline, depot, subway). Indeclinable nouns of foreign origin denoting animals and birds are usually masculine (flamingos, kangaroos, cockatoos, chimpanzees, ponies). If, according to the conditions of the context, it is necessary to indicate a female animal, the agreement is carried out using the feminine gender. The nouns kangaroo, chimpanzee, pony are combined with a past tense verb in the feminine form. For example: The kangaroo was carrying a baby kangaroo in her bag. The chimpanzee, apparently a female, fed the baby a banana. The mother pony was standing in a stall with a small foal. The noun tsetse is an exception. Its gender is determined by the gender of the word mukha (feminine). For example: Tsetse bit a tourist. If determining the gender of an indeclinable noun is difficult, it is advisable to consult a spelling dictionary. For example: haiku (Japanese tercet) - s.r., takku (Japanese quintet) - s.r., su (coin) - s.r., flamenco (dance) - s.r., taboo (prohibition) - s.r. .R. Some indeclinable nouns are recorded only in dictionaries of new words. For example: sushi (Japanese dish) - sr., tarot (cards) - plural. (genus is not determined). The gender of indeclinable foreign-language geographical names, as well as names of newspapers and magazines, is determined by the generic common noun, for example: Pau (river), Bordeaux (city), Mississippi (river), Erie (lake), Congo (river), Ontario (lake), "Humanité" (newspaper). The gender of indeclinable compound words is in most cases determined by the gender of the core word of the phrase, for example: MSU (university - m.r.) MFA (academy - zh.r.). The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen is usually determined: 1) by the first part, if both parts change: my chair-bed - my chair-bed (cf. ), new amphibious aircraft - new amphibious aircraft (m.r.); 2) according to the second part, if the first does not change: sparkling firebird - sparkling firebird (g.r.), huge swordfish - huge swordfish (g.r.). In some cases, the gender is not determined, since the compound word is used only in the plural: fairy-tale boots-runners - fairy-tale boots-runners (plural). Number of nouns Nouns are used in the singular when talking about one object (horse, stream, crevice, field). Nouns are used in the plural when talking about two or more objects (horses, streams, cracks, fields). According to the characteristics of the forms and meanings of the singular and plural, the following are distinguished: 1) nouns that have both singular and plural forms; 2) nouns that have only a singular form; 3) nouns that have only a plural form. The first group includes nouns with a concrete object meaning, denoting countable objects and phenomena, for example: house - houses; street - streets; person people; city ​​dweller - city dwellers. The nouns of the second group include: 1) names of many identical objects (children, teachers, raw materials, spruce forest, foliage); 2) names of objects with real meaning (peas, milk, raspberries, porcelain, kerosene, chalk); 3) names of quality or attribute (freshness, whiteness, dexterity, melancholy, courage); 4) names of actions or states (mowing, chopping, delivery, running, surprise, reading); 5) proper names as names of individual objects (Moscow, Tambov, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi); 6) words burden, udder, flame, crown. The nouns of the third group include: 1) names of composite and paired objects (scissors, glasses, watches, abacus, jeans, trousers); 2) names of materials or waste, residues (bran, cream, perfume, wallpaper, sawdust, ink, 3) names of periods of time (vacations, days, weekdays); 4) names of actions and states of nature (troubles, negotiations, frosts, sunrises, twilight); 5) some geographical names (Lyubertsy, Mytishchi, Sochi, Carpathians, Sokolniki); 6) the names of some games (blind man's buff, hide and seek, chess, backgammon, grandma). The formation of plural forms of nouns is mainly done with the help of endings. In some cases, some changes in the base of the word may also be observed, namely: 1) softening of the final consonant of the base (neighbor - neighbors, devil - devils, knee - knees); 2) alternation of the final consonants of the stem (ear - ears, eye - eyes); 3) adding a suffix to the plural stem (husband - husband\j\a], chair - chair\j\a], sky - heaven, miracle - miracle-es-a, son - son-ov\j\a]) ; 4) loss or replacement of formative suffixes of the singular (mister - gentlemen, chicken - hens, calf - tel-yat-a, bear cub - bear cubs). For some nouns, plural forms are formed by changing the stem, for example: person (singular) - people (plural), child (singular) - children (plural). In indeclinable nouns, number is determined syntactically: young chimpanzee (singular) - many chimpanzees (plural). Case of nouns Case is an expression of the relationship of an object called by a noun to other objects. Russian grammar distinguishes six cases of nouns, the meanings of which are generally expressed using case questions: The nominative case is considered direct, and all others are indirect. To determine the case of a noun in a sentence, you need to: 1) find the word to which the noun refers; 2) put a question from this word to the noun: see (who? what?) brother, be proud of (what?) successes. Among the case endings of nouns, homonym endings are often found. For example, in the forms of the genitive case from the door, the dative case to the door, and the prepositional case about the door, there is not the same ending -i, but three different homonym endings. The same homonyms are the endings of the dative and prepositional cases in the forms by country and about country-e. Types of declension of nouns Declension is the change of a noun by case and number. This change is expressed using a system of case endings and shows the grammatical relationship of the given noun to other words in the phrase and sentence, for example: School\a\ is open. Construction of schools has been completed. Graduates send greetings to schools\e\ According to the peculiarities of case endings in the singular, a noun has three declensions. The type of declination can only be determined in the singular. Nouns of the first declension The first declension includes: 1) feminine nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular (country, land, army); 2) masculine nouns denote people with the ending -a (ya) in the nominative singular case (uncle, young man, Petya). 3) nouns of the general gender with endings -а (я) in the nominative case (crybaby, sleepyhead, bully). Nouns of the first declension in the oblique singular cases have the following endings: It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns in -ya and -iya: Marya - Maria, Natalya - Natalia, Daria - Daria, Sophia - Sofia. Nouns of the first declension in -iya (army, guard, biology, line, series, Maria) in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have the ending -i. In writing, mistakes are often caused by mixing the endings of nouns of the first declension into -ee and -iya. Words ending in -eya (alley, battery, gallery, idea) have the same endings as feminine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as earth, will, bathhouse, etc. Nouns of the second declension The second declension includes: 1) nouns masculine with a zero ending in the nominative singular (house, horse, museum); 2) masculine nouns with the ending -о (-е) in the nominative singular (domishko, saraishko); 3) neuter nouns with the ending -о, -е in the nominative singular case (window, sea, gorge); 4) noun journeyman. Masculine nouns of the second declension have the following endings in the oblique singular cases: In the prepositional singular case, the ending -e predominates for masculine nouns. The ending -у (у) is accepted only by inanimate masculine nouns if: a) they are used with the prepositions in and on; b) have (in most cases) the nature of stable combinations denoting a place, state, time of action. For example: eyesore; remain in debt; on the verge of death; grazing; to follow the lead; stew in one's own juices; be in good standing. But: work by the sweat of your brow, in the sunshine; grammatical structure; at a right angle; in some cases, etc. It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns: -ie and -ie: teaching - teaching, treatment - treatment, silence - silence, torment - torment, radiance - radiance. Nouns of the second declension ending in -i, -i in the prepositional case -i. Words ending in -ey (sparrow, museum, mausoleum, frost, lyceum) have the same endings as masculine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as horse, elk, deer, fight, etc. Nouns of the third declension The third declension includes names feminine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular (door, night, mother, daughter). Nouns of the third declension in the oblique singular cases have the following endings: The words mother and daughter belonging to the third declension, when changed in all cases except the nominative and accusative, have the suffix -er- at the base: Declension of nouns in the plural In case endings plural differences between individual types of noun declension are insignificant. In the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases, nouns of all three declensions have the same endings. In the nominative case, the endings -и, -ы и|-а(-я) predominate. The ending -e is less common. You should remember the formation of the genitive plural forms of some nouns, where the ending can be zero or -ov. This includes words naming: 1) paired and composite objects: (not) felt boots, boots, stockings, collars, days (but: socks, rails, glasses); 2) some nationalities (in most cases, the stem of the words ends in n and r): (no) English, Bashkirs, Buryats, Georgians, Turkmens, Mordvins, Ossetians, Romanians (but: Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Yakuts); 3) some units of measurement: (five) amperes, watts, volts, arshins, hertz; 4) some vegetables and fruits: (kilogram) apples, raspberries, olives (but: apricots, oranges, bananas, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes). In some cases, plural endings perform a semantic distinguishing function in words. For example: dragon teeth - saw teeth, tree roots - fragrant roots, sheets of paper - tree leaves, scratched knees (knee - “joint”) - complex knees (knee - “dance move”) - trumpet knees (knee - “ joint at the pipe"). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns include: 1) ten nouns ending in -mya (burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown); 2) noun path; 3) noun child. Diversified nouns have the following features: 1) ending - both in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases of the singular - as in the III declension; 2) the ending -еm in the instrumental case of the singular as in the 2nd declension; 3) the suffix -en- in all forms, except for the nominative and accusative cases of the singular (only for nouns ending in -mya). The word path has case forms of the third declension, with the exception of the instrumental case of the singular, which is characterized by the form of the second declension. Wed: night - nights, path - paths (in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases); steering wheel - steering wheel, path - path (in the instrumental case). The noun child in the singular retains the archaic declension, which is currently not actually used, but in the plural it has the usual forms, except for the instrumental case, which is characterized by the ending -mi (the same ending is characteristic of the form by people). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns do not have case forms, these words do not have endings. The grammatical meanings of individual cases in relation to such nouns are expressed syntactically, for example: drink coffee, buy cashews, novels by Dumas. Indeclinable nouns include: 1) many nouns of foreign origin with final vowels -о, -е, -и, -у, -у, -а (solo, coffee, hobby, zebu, cashew, bra, Dumas, Zola); 2) foreign-language surnames denoting female persons ending in a consonant (Michon, Sagan); 3) Russian and Ukrainian surnames with -o, -ih, -yh (Durnovo, Krutykh, Sedykh); 4) complex abbreviated words of alphabetic and mixed nature (Moscow State University, Ministry of Internal Affairs, head of department). The syntactic function of indeclinable nouns is determined only in context. For example: The Walrus asked the Kangaroo (RP): How can you stand the heat? I'm shaking from the cold! - Kangaroo (I.p.) said to Walrus. (B. Zakhoder) Kangaroo is an indeclinable noun, denotes an animal, masculine gender, and is the object and subject of a sentence. Morphological analysis of a noun Morphological analysis of a noun includes the identification of four constant characteristics (proper-common noun, animate-inanimate, gender, declension) and two inconsistent ones (case and number). The number of constant features of a noun can be increased by including features such as concrete and abstract, as well as real and collective nouns. Scheme of morphological analysis of a noun.

Noun gender category

There are masculine, feminine, neuter, and general nouns. The gender of nouns is determined by their ending in I.p. units

Genus category

Masculine		Feminine		Neuter gender
Zero-terminated	Na-y	With endings -and I	Na-y	With endings on -o, -e, -e	Na-mya
Album Agrarian Cloak Display	Grill	Agrofirm Tower Water area	Publicity	Device Sea Delegation Raw materials	Flame

As can be seen from the table, nouns in -ъ may belong to m.r. ( grill) and f.r. ( publicity). The gender of nouns ending in -ь can in some cases be determined by the suffix. So, words with the suffix -tel (builder) belong to m.r., with the suffix -ness (legitimacy), -know (fear) - to f.r. Gender of nouns -ь, like everyone else, when perceiving a text, can be determined by the endings of R.p. and subsequent or at the end of adjectives related to these nouns: beautiful pigeon, beautiful dove etc.; dark night, dark night etc. Based on the endings, it is impossible to determine whether only those words that are always used in the plural belong to one gender or another: sled, wallpaper, chess. Such nouns can be inflected in the plural. according to different samples (cf. in R.p. plural: sleigh, wallpaper, chess). The gender of nouns in the text can also be determined by the form of the predicate verb: if this verb is used in the past tense: stood clear night (zh.r. ). The moon was shining (m.r.) in full force. Quiet sky <... > was (s.r.) calmly, dispassionately(S. Antonov).

The gender of some nouns is determined by meaning, depending on the gender of the person. These include common nouns: started singing, headman, quiet. They can appear in m.r. meanings. and f.r. depending on the gender of the person they call: Which nerd! — Which clever girl! Valya(youth) entered to university. — Valya(young woman) arrived to university. General gender nouns are inflected according to the pattern of zh.r. nouns. and are usually used in a conversational style of speech: drove, hard worker.

Nouns m.r. - the names of professions and positions are the official names of male and female persons ( rector or Professor Smirnov — Smirnova).

Even unofficial positions that were traditionally occupied by men, if a woman occupies them, are still called by the words m.r.: S him[driver] the district ambition immediately disappeared, and he immediately switched his attention from Ksyuta to collective farm groom Klava, trying to catch the eye of Ivan Kuzmich under her arm(E. Yevtushenko). However, many of these nouns are m.r. may carry a predicate in the form of zh.r., especially if it is necessary to pay attention to the gender of the character, but there may also be stylistic reasons for coordinating the predicate with the subject in meaning and not in form. For example: The rector spoke at a meeting with a report. — The rector spoke at a meeting with a report; The professor replied to all questions. — The professor answered to all questions. Agreement with such nouns definitions in zh.r. ( Our rector... ) is colloquial in nature.

Nouns of each gender have their own system of inflections.

In the Russian language there is a small group of uninflected (indeclinable) nouns that have only one grammatical form ( B-B-Q, metro, show): Look around — and you will probably see; in the alley Taxi rumble(I. Borodinsky). If such nouns name objects, they refer to s.r. (oscillations V used between m.r. and w.r. observed only in nouns coffee). If unchangeable nouns name persons or animals, everything depends on their gender (cure - m.p., lady- f.r., my - my protégé, Beautiful — beautiful kangaroo).

In colloquial speech, even names are often not declined when used with a patronymic: Well, don't you recognize Tikhon Tikhonovich?- With the berry commissioner muttered with timid playfulness(E. Yevtushenko).

Unchangeable nouns denoting a profession, position, title, traditionally associated with male labor (such as attache, impresario, entertainer, referee), refer to m.r. The gender of indeclinable geographical names is determined by the gender of the corresponding generic noun. For example, Sochi refer to m.p., like the corresponding generic noun city, Mississippi- to zh.r., as well as the generic name river, Ontario- to s.r., like the generic word lake.

Compound words made up of the first letters ( State Emergency Committee- gekachepe) or sounds ( ITAR) of the words from which they are derived receive the gender of the stem word. State Emergency Committee is State Committee(m.r.) under a state of emergency, that's why they say The State Emergency Committee decided; ITAR- This Information telegraph agency(s.r.) Russia, that's why they say ITAR reported. However, if you forget from which words a compound abbreviated word is formed, it receives a gender, like an ordinary word, according to a formal sign: it refers to m.r. at zero termination ( Housing office although this housing maintenance office), to w.r. - at the end -o ( RONO although this district department of public education).

In common parlance, some words are used in a different way than in literary language. Here are some examples:

“I have a liter bottle hidden in one place.” There are canned goods... Let's take it!

“Regulation,” the mechanic smiles. - Are you serious?

— One-piece liters!

- Let's go to! - Izyumin says briefly ( V. Lipatov).

From rheumatisms rub well; Do you know our task! World revolution across all continents; He was Commissioner check; The front will wait! The good ones first power must be planted; Then take out the fork-plates from your treasured chests and stick them in any delicacy, eat for your health; Who are you, Vasily Zakharovich, such authority gave? ( A. Strygin).

In one newspaper he reads a communiqué, in another that the same communique; You know it yourself - highway through we have a long way to go ( S. Antonov).

Oh you skin! It caught! (O. Kozhukhova).

Some errors are quite persistent. These include, for example, the perception of a noun surname as words sr.r., which is reflected in fiction:

Tikhon Tikhonovich even sweated with indignation:

- It turns out interesting. It’s a shame to say who the father is, but to lie about me, to slander me without looking at my age, is not a shame. Who is the father? Last name name it!

- I don’t know him last name, - Ksyuta answered sadly. - I don’t even know the name. I don't know anything ( E. Yevtushenko).

Historically, the gender affiliation of a noun can change (the queen had a female birth name, received a mixed birth name) and its formal indicator (cf.: sanatorium and modern sanatorium).

In case of difficulties with determining the grammatical gender of nouns, it is necessary to refer to standard dictionaries, where for each noun it is necessary to indicate to what gender it belongs.

To use words correctly, you need to understand what kind they are. Is coffee, for example, neuter masculine? If it’s average, then you need to say: “My coffee is cold.” And if it’s male, “My coffee is cold.” How to avoid being branded as an illiterate person when determining the neuter gender?

What are the neuter words? Examples

The division of parts of speech by gender (feminine, neuter and masculine) is not unique to the Russian language. The ending of a word determines whether it belongs to the neuter gender. Neuter nouns are usually inanimate, although there are exceptions:

• creature,
• animal,
• monster,
• deity,
• child,
• monster,
• person (official).

If a word comes from another language, ends in a vowel, is inanimate, and according to established tradition is not declined, it is considered neuter.

Neuter nouns answer the question: whose is it? If you can say about a word: “It’s mine,” then it’s a neuter noun. There are two types of endings for such words:

1. -o, -e, -e, -ie. These are, for example, the following words: pots, lake, muffler, gun, understanding.
2. -me. For example, stirrup, crown, name.

Neuter words can be not only nouns, but also adjectives, numerals and pronouns.

Coffee - it or he?

It seems that the word "coffee" does not obey the rule: it ends in "e", but at the same time it is not neuter, but masculine. exception? Not really. The fact is that the word, along with the drink, came to Russia with Peter the Great. Tea had already been known for a long time, and by analogy with this drink the new product began to be called “coffee.” Then no one doubted that the word was masculine. Its diminutive version of “coffees” is still beyond doubt.

Over time, the word “coffee” became obsolete and was replaced by “coffee.” The word became unbreakable. And here a paradox arose. According to the rules, this word must have a neuter gender. This is why, intuitively, people began to use “coffee” as a neuter word. A process began that transferred the word “metro” from the masculine to the neuter. You probably remember Utesov’s song: “But the metro sparkled with oak railings...”

Why don’t linguists recognize the neuter gender for coffee? Because this word has a special meaning. Using it in the neuter gender is contrary to literary tradition, and therefore is perceived as illiterate. Coffee is included in the list of words that speakers of literate Russian speech fight for. These are the words contract, rings, blinds, cottage cheese, provision and several others.

And although since 2002 you can say “my coffee” in colloquial speech, only the masculine gender is recognized in writing.

Declension

Changing words by case is called declension. Neuter words with endings can be inflected. For neuter nouns there are the following rules (see table).

Case	Singular	Plural
	A, -Z: windows, buildings, points	She, ev, ov: windows, fields, trees
	U, -yu: window, building, edge	Am, yam: windows, fields, trees
	Oh, -e, -e: window, building, edge	A, -z: windows, fields, buildings, trees
	Om, eat, -eat: window, building, edge	Ami, -yami: windows, points
	E, -i: about health, about the building, on the cutting edge	Ah, -yah: about windows, about trees

Common mistakes

A typical mistake was the incorrect determination of the gender of some words. Because of the ending “o,” which is pronounced “a” in the unstressed version, some inflect such words into the feminine form. Example:

• The buffet sells pies with jam, manga and dried apricots.
• We saw the natives living in bungalow.
• The neighbors bought piano.

The correct options would be to use the highlighted words in the neuter form. That is: with jam, with mangoes, in a bungalow, we bought a piano.

The second common mistake is trying to change indeclinable nouns by case. It’s not just children who get confused, and incredible words of feminine, masculine, and neuter gender arise.

Words that do not change by case. Examples

In addition to inflected words, there are also neuter words that are invariable by case:

• arpeggio,
• video,
• graffiti,
• dragee,
• neckline,
• coupe,
• cafe,
• mango,
• mini,
• neutrino,
• penalty,
• piano,
• rendezvous,
• solo,
• trio,
• Taxi,
• fouetté,
• facsimile.

This list is far from complete. Therefore, if difficulties arise, it is better to turn to dictionaries.

How to remember words without endings: a game

To avoid making mistakes in declination, there is a simple and fun way to check. Try putting these words in several different cases. If it turns out funny and absurd, then this word is not declined according to cases.

• The kangaroo put on his pince-nez (wrong, there is no such word, you need to put “pince-nez”).
• To get to the cafe, I took a taxi (it would be correct: “taxi”).
• We gorged ourselves on crème brûlée, blancmange and dragées (correctly: “crème brûlée, blancmange and dragées”).
• Let's meet near the depot and go watch the movie "Dynamo" (you need: "near the depot, the movie "Dynamo").
• I am dissatisfied with the passe-partout with a photo and a panel (it would be correct: “passe-partout with a photo and a panel”).

Play this game with your children. It is not difficult, the main thing is not to forget that these words are not declined by case. Regular games with words develop intelligence and expand vocabulary. Soon the child will feel how to construct a phrase and use words, and will not make mistakes.

D. V. Sichinava, 2011

Genus- This word-classifying grammatical category(see Grammatical category) Russian subject words (otherwise substantives: nouns, noun pronouns). The category of gender of objective words is manifested through the grammatical indicators of the word forms of Russian attributive words that agree with them (otherwise adjectives: adjectives, pronouns-adjectives, numerals-adjectives, participles of verbs; also anaphoric pronouns like he who), as well as word forms of the verb in the indicative mood of the past tense and the subjunctive mood. For attributive words and verbs, the category of gender is inflectional(see Grammatical category). The word-classifying gender and the concordant gender are inseparable parts of a single category; the first is manifested through the second, the second is dictated by the first [Kopeliovich 2008:93].

In the example below, words for which gender is a word-classifying category are underlined; words for which gender is an inflectional category are in italics.

(1) (red, mine, fourth, open) book ( lay)

(red, mine, fourth, open) notebook (lying)

(red, mine, fourth, open) letter (lying)

· male kind;

· female kind;

· average kind.

In [Zaliznyak 1967] it is also highlighted doubles genus(see), for lexemes pluralia tantum; The paired gender is the agreement of such lexemes in the plural.

According to a sample of 34 thousand nouns, masculine nouns account for about 46%, feminine 41%, neuter nouns - 13% [Muchnik 1971].

Gender is inherent in all nouns of the Russian language (for paired gender, see below(see )) and is for them syntactically independent category(see Grammatical category), therefore, many authors consider it as the main grammatical category of the Russian noun [Voeykova 2008]. The gender of objective words does not have an unambiguous morphological expression in the form of the noun itself, although it correlates in a certain way with its inflectional type ( morphological genus(cm. )):

(2) F.A. Petrovsky assured that in his youth he saw a hairdressing salon with the inscriptions: “men’s hall”, “women’s hall”, “children’s hall”. [M. L. Gasparov. Records and extracts (1998)]

1. Gender and concordant class

1.1. Consensus class. Genus according to A. A. Zaliznyak

Traditional grammar considers gender as a characteristic of a word; in [Zaliznyak 1967] an approach is proposed in which the genus is considered in close connection with the so-called concordant class.

According to the definition given in [Zaliznyak 1967], a concordant class is a set of nouns that require (with a fixed grammatical meaning) the same word forms of any attribute (adjective part of speech - adjectives, etc.) with a concordant syntactic connection. In other words, these are non-overlapping groups of words, with all the words of one of which the agreed parts of speech agree equally (but at the same time differently with any two words from different groups).

The concordant class is a grammatical category because all nouns have it (see Grammatical category).

[show note]

Concordant class is a term often mentioned when describing the grammar of the languages ​​of Africa, Dagestan, and a number of other areas. Typically, systems with nominal classes are systems that are similar to generic ones, but with a large number of classes and other semantic oppositions between them. In a number of such languages ​​(the Niger-Congo family), the concordant class has a special indicator, in others (Dagestan, Atlantic) the form of the word does not predict his class affiliation. Russian language belongs to the intermediate type; Nouns do not have an unambiguous indicator of gender, but there is a certain correlation between the type of inflection and gender (see below, about morphological gender). In Russian grammatical terminology, it was first proposed to be used by P. S. Kuznetsov.

In the Russian language, the concordant class does not coincide with the traditional gender, but is obtained by “multiplying” the gender by the sign of animacy, since the forms of the accusative case for animate and inanimate names differ in the plural (and for inanimate ones – in the singular):

v.p. units white house, leaf, robe; wine.p. plural: white houses, sheets, robes

v.p. units white planter, elephant, ghost; wine.p. plural: white planters, elephants, ghosts.

Thus, the traditional three genera correspond to six concordant classes:

• house– m.r. inanimate;
• elephant– m.r. soulful;
• wall– f.r. inanimate;
• goat - w.r. shower ;
• window - s.r. inanimate;
• monster– s.r. shower

About seventh grade, etc. pair gender see below(cm. ).

N. N. Durnovo (cf. [Durnovo 1924]), who was the first to actually introduce the concept of a concordant class, does not distinguish between the concepts of “gender” and “concordant class” and distinguishes 6 genders in the Russian language.

A. A. Zaliznyak considers gender as such pairs of concordant classes that differ only in the choice of indicators of the accusative case, dictated by animacy.

1.2. Diagnostic contexts of concordance

According to Zaliznyak, to diagnostic contexts for the genus of the concordant connection, in addition to the most common - attributive connection ( white house, white fortress), also applies to syntactic connections in the following types of phrases:

• predicative construction ( the house is white, the house is white):

(3) This space is infinite. There is nothing there except fog. [ABOUT. Efremova. The Story of a Suicide (2002)]

• selective designs (one of the houses, each of the houses):

(4) We can say that this is one of the symptoms, which is part of the symptom complex of rickets, but this symptom alone is not enough to diagnose the disease. [A. Razakova. First year and whole life (2002)]

(5) And suddenly one day I notice that in one of the bottles which I emptied the day before, for some reason there were about a hundred grams of vodka left. [F. Iskander. Pangs of conscience, or Bai's bed (1980-1990)]

• combinations with some numerals ( one and a half, both and numerals ending in one And two):

(6) Both these vector existed throughout the Soviet period. [L. Shpakovskaya. Old things. Value: between state and society (2004)]

(7) Dr. Watson held out both hands to the identikit and invited Sherlock Holmes to wave. ["Information Technology" (2004)]

• constructions with certain verbs and an adjective in the instrumental case (the adjective is governed by the verb, but agrees with the object in number and gender):

(8) I have never considered and do not I think the Comintern is sinless. [AND. V. Stalin. International situation and defense of the USSR (1927)]

(9) Does it scare you, dog, that I’m already rehearsing, but I myself consider the play unprepared? [A. Dmitriev. Phantom of the Theater (2002-2003)]

The agreement of a pronoun with the core noun (the term "congruence" is often used) is also diagnostic of gender:

(10) For example, I quilted a patchwork with my own hands for my granddaughter blanket, knowing that it will protect her and give her energy. ["Folk Art" (2004)]

1.3. Inconsistency between diagnostics of gender-numerical agreement

In a number of cases, diagnostics of gender-numerical agreement give different results: some of them are dictated by grammatical agreement, others by “agreement in meaning,” that is, by the gender of the referent. For example, the pronoun You (You) when addressing one person (polite You) requires an unambiguous plural in the verb: You have come, you will come(*came, *will come), however, adjectives, participles and adjective pronouns in the position of the predicate with it can (and in a number of contexts should) agree “in meaning”, in the singular and in the gender of the referent:

(11) Who you are like that? “I was going to the city,” the girl answered. [YU. O. Dombrovsky. The Monkey Comes for His Skull, Part 2 (1943-1958)] (*who are you)

(12) - I saw you. You are beautiful. I love those... graceful. [Elena Belkina. From love to hate (2002 [Alexander Terekhov. Stone Bridge (1997-2008)] (*You are beautiful.)

For short adjectives, unlike full ones, agreement in the plural is not only not prohibited, but is also much more frequent than in the singular:

(13) - Sorry, but where can you see that are you pregnant? [Collection of jokes: transport (1970-2000)]

(14) She goes to the doctor: is it gastritis? And she said to her: “Yes You are pregnant" So she blurted out rudely. [I. Grekova. Fracture (1987)]

For words of a normatively masculine gender meaning female persons ( doctor, prime minister; see more details) it is possible to agree on the masculine gender ( our doctor, the prime minister said along with ours, stated), but coreferential pronouns in the masculine gender are impossible (about a woman it is impossible: the doctor came, *he said that...).

1.4. Concordant class and personality category

As A. A. Zaliznyak notes, if we consider the rule about the incompatibility of collective numerals ( two, three) with the names of animals (i.e., consider combinations of the type to be grammatically incorrect two cows, three hares), one can distinguish a concordant class in the Russian language depending not only on animation, but also on personality [Zaliznyak 1967:70]. From a typological point of view, personality is a grammatical category that contrasts the designations of people with the designations of all other objects. In this case, the designations of people ( two writers, three soldiers) in their compatibility would be opposed to the designations of animals and objects.

Let us add to this that the rules noted in the literature about the inadmissibility of combining collective numerals with designations for women ( two girls) and/or persons of high social status ( two kings, two generals) would give a different boundary of the concordant class, highlighting the “personal-male”, “personal-low-status” class or combinations thereof.

However, in reality, combinations of the form two girls, seven kings, three birds with one stone in Russian are allowed (see Numerals).

2. Morphology

2.1. Word-classifying gender: indicators of morphological gender

In the Russian language there is a strong correlation between the gender of a noun and its inflection pattern. Thus, most feminine nouns end in im.p. units on -A and belong to the a-declension (fox, bathhouse) either a soft consonant or any sibilant (spelling -ь) and belong to the third declension ( notebook, rye, thing), masculine - to a consonant and belong to the second declension (wolf, horse, pencil), average – on - o/-e and belong to the second declension ( village, sea). The correspondence of individual inflectional types and gender can be absolute; so, all words of the third declension (by type steppe) feminine [Plungyan 2000].

In [Otkupshchikova, Fitialov 1964] (following them in [Zaliznyak 1967]), the types of paradigms characteristic of most masculine, feminine and neuter nouns are called masculine, feminine and neuter morphological genera. The morphological gender may not coincide with the concordant gender. So the words man or Thomas– feminine morphological, but masculine concordant gender, and journeyman– average morphological, but masculine concordant gender.

Without information about the type of inflection, the choice of gender according to the form of the im.p. often difficult (cf. shadow And day, reed And mouse), however, with the help of characteristic suffixes (for example, - tel for m.r. And -ness for zh.r.) the vast majority of nouns in their original form allows us to determine the morphological gender [Muchnik 1971].

According to [Zaliznyak 1967], morphological nouns are masculine 40.5%, feminine - 43%, neuter - 16.5% (based on 47,700 lexemes).

2.1.1. Discrepancies between morphological and agreement gender

Discrepancies between morphological and syntactic gender concern a limited number of nouns; however, a number of such words are high in frequency. Thus, the first thousand frequency Russian words (according to [Sharov, Lyashevskaya 2009]) include the words man(416th), dad(843rd), the word is close to a thousand uncle(1128th).

2.1.1.1. Female morphological genus

The female morphological gender is normatively treated

• a series of ancient non-productive animate masculine nouns (youth, servant, elder, man, judge);
• hypocoristic (“diminutive”) male names like Vasya,Kolya;
• nouns with productive augmentative suffixes -in- (Cossack, domina) and more expressive -yar-(volchara, dozhdar, popyara), inheriting the gender of the generating word (Cossack, house, wolf, rain, pop);
• animate nouns with diminutive suffixes like boy, lad, rogue, also inheriting the genus of the original ( boy, lad, rogue):

(15) Battle Mage - stern bearded kid - played with a transparent ball in which bluish lightning danced. [D. Yemets. Tanya Grotter and the Well of Poseidon (2004)]

(16) You won’t be able to find out anything. Kotyara to you messed up. [IN. Belousova. Second Shot (2000)]

For words with suffix -in type domina(with homophonic variants of the neuter morphological gender type domino) is characterized by variability of the concordant kind (see). Words starting with - A can act as common nouns (see).

2.1.1.2. Middle morphological genus

The average morphological genus normatively includes:

• few masculine nouns journeyman or funnel, nest(designations of horse colors, which can also act as nicknames):

(17) Old funnel! I saw how a tear broke through you, I saw how your fleshy lips trembled, I heard your sigh, with which it seemed that you begged your leaders not to harness you to the root, for the place belongs not to you, but bay! [M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Satires in prose (1859-1862)]

(18) words with suffixes -searching- And -ishk- (house, little house), inheriting the gender of the generating word:

(19) In the kitchen of the guard company he received a bag of rye loaves, stocked up full can drinking water. [ABOUT. Pavlov. Karaganda nineties, or the Tale of the last days (2001)]

(20) She was in that apartment, overlooking flimsy little balcony… [G. Shcherbakova. Angel of the Dead Lake (2002)]

Outside the literary norm, some of these classes exhibit fluctuations between neuter and feminine morphological gender.

According to [Zaliznyak 1967] (see also [Graudina et al. 1976:74–75], [Grammatika 1980(1):486], [Voeykova 2008:119]), inanimate nouns with suffixes -in- gravitate towards a mixed morphological genus (saw this dom O / ??? dom at , But with this dom Ouch / ??? dom ohm) or to a change in the type of agreement (my red-skinned passport - Mayakovsky ), and animate ones with suffixes -searching- And -ishk-– to female ( I saw this bull, there is not a single house):

(21) I’ve seen so many dog-catchers! and in the form of shells, and parodying the Russian folk hut and somewhat similar to a pagoda. Even double decker saw domino! (ann-sanni.livejournal.com)

(22) It went to another corner, picked up huge my coat. [A. Eppel. Sitting in the Dark on Viennese Chairs (1993)]

East Slavic surnames in -ko (Rodzianko, Shevchenko) in the 19th century, as well as in modern vernacular, they are inclined either according to the neuter morphological gender (as in Ukrainian: Rodziankom, Shevchenkom), or feminine (as in Belarusian: Rodzianka, Shevchenko). The literary norm prescribes the indeclinability of these surnames:

(23) As a result of this request of mine, what had to happen from me, the nobleman Ivan Nikiforov’s son Dovgochkhun, together with the nobleman Ivan Ivanov’s son Perepenkom; to which the Povetovy Mirgorod Court itself expressed its connivance. [N. V. Gogol. The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich (1835-1841)]

(24) He proved something, joked, discussed the new, young and energetic General Secretary with a spot on his head, went to a meeting with a shabby Yevtushenka, sitting in an embroidered Russian shirt next to little Nika Turbina and looking at everyone sullenly and angrily. [A. Varlamov. Kupavna (2000)]

Similar fluctuations (between neuter and feminine morphological genders and indeclinability) are also characteristic of Slavic forms of names like Yarilo, Sadko(pre-Christian) or Mikhailo,Ivanko,Danilo(Christian):

(25) The key keeper reports to his master, who ordered the grain to be withheld from the peasants who announced they were leaving him, that Ivanka three boxes were selected. [IN. L. Yanin. I sent you birch bark... (1975)]

(26) Then (the master) called Danilo and he himself explained the new rent to him. Danilo sees - it’s completely absurd [P. P. Bazhov. Fragile Twig (1940)]

(27) And look: our Mirabeau Old Gavrilo For a crumpled frill, it whips you in the mustache and snout. [D. V. Davydov. Modern Song: (1836)]

2.1.1.3 Masculine morphological gender

The masculine morphological gender includes expressive designations of female persons formed from words of the feminine morphological gender (except woman, only proper names are actually used) using a number of suffixes: woman from woman, Mashkin from Masha, Natusik from Natusya, Lenok from Lena, Shurik from Shura(last thing - general kind(cm. )):

(28) And almost all nouns acquired the ending in etz: instead of baba - woman, instead of a frog - frog, instead of a tavern - tavern. [P. D. Boborykin. Memoirs (1906-1913)]

These words fluctuate between masculine and feminine consonant gender (for woman more frequent than masculine - 10 examples versus 2, for proper names - feminine, for example, for Lenok -- 5 vs 1):

(29) High lunar moon. AND sleeping woman. [IN. Makanin. Inadequate (2002)]

(30) And I don’t understand why this is so experienced(to say the least) woman so he twitches, flickers, jitters, dances on the dance floor. [A. Parsnip. Sonya the Garbage (Memories of a Dead Man) (2002)]

(31) Lenok never called The boss by name and patronymic, unless, of course, he was nearby [E. Proshkin. Evacuation (2002)]

2.1.2. Adaptation of foreign borrowings

Foreign inflected borrowings in most cases do not copy the gender of the source language. Declined nouns choose gender based on morphological gender (for example, masculine words organon, council in Greek and Latin Middle, slogan– in German feminine). Indeclinables gravitate toward the neuter gender (with the exception of designations for living beings like kangaroo; cm. ).

2.2. Pluralia tantum as "paired genus"

Pluralia tantum - nouns that do not have a singular form - are traditionally classified as phenomena related to number rather than gender.

However, in [Zaliznyak 1967] it is proposed to consider them as a special concordant class(see paragraph 1) (inanimate: I see new sleighs), which corresponds to the special fourth genus – paired gender Forms pluralia tantum, meaning related to a single object, like one sleigh, one of these sleighs are considered unit forms. h., homonymous plural:

(32) And this is impossible given the decisive predominance of such two fundamental attitudes of the Indian (although far from exclusively Indian) worldview as monism and atomism, which are like two blades some scissors personal theology and anthropology are completely cut off. [History of Eastern Philosophy (1998)]

Unlike the three traditional genders, the paired gender does not include an animate concordant class (see). However, A. A. Zaliznyak theoretically allows for the identification of a class that would include the words white And black like the names of sides in chess and similar games. Wed. accusative case form, proving the animation of the word white:

(33) After the correct 35…Rf6! winnings for white can not see. [E. Bareev. The quality of draws and their quantity (2004)]

This does not apply to political party designations ( white, red, green), which also have a singular number.

There is no special morphological pairing; words of paired gender are distributed into three morphological genders. So, watch belongs to the masculine morphological gender (hours) like a word hour; scissors And trousers- to the feminine (scissors - scissors, trousers - trousers, Wed pages - pages, pieces - pieces); gates And firewood– to the average (gate - gate, firewood - firewood, Wed swamps – swamps, words - words), about plural forms opposed by morphological gender. cm. clause 2.6.1.4(cm.).

Historically, pluralia tantum forms had a plural concordant gender, which was preserved in writing until the reform of 1918 (see. clause 2.6.1.1) Many of them are associated with lost or semantically specified singular forms. ( spirit - perfume, hour - clock).

2.3. Common gender

The lexicographic tradition, in addition to three main genera, also distinguishes the so-called common gender. It includes animate nouns denoting persons (often also animals), depending on the gender of the designated person, which are either feminine or masculine:

(34) Dmitry Kharatyan was not a blockhead, but simply inquisitive fidget. [N. Sklyarov. Cossacks-robbers (2002)]

(35) And yet Moscow, with its never-ending study, dull music-playing, corrosive governesses, and the heavy burden of going to concerts, turned out to be for restless fidget- a true daredevil in a skirt - unbearable. [N. Nikitina. Chapters from the book about Alexandra Lvovna Tolstoy (2002)]

(36) There, in a dense thicket of young alders, aspens, birches and fir trees, a thieving magpie was sitting at her nest... There she thrust her prey to the chicks and - restless - immediately flew away somewhere again. [IN. V. Bianchi. There were forest tales (1923-1958)]

There are about 200 words of the general kind [Muchnik 1971], [Graudina et al. 1976:76–77], [Iomdin 1980]. They belong to the female morphological genus. Semantically, most of these words are associated with negative characteristics (drunkard, incompetent, bully, picky) or objective shortcomings ( orphan, cripple).

The interpretation of the general gender depends on whether to see one or two lexemes for each of these words. If we consider word forms that agree on the feminine and masculine genders like orphan representing one lexeme, then such words are allocated to a special concordant class (according to A. A. Zaliznyak - crossed). An interpretation is also possible, in which in each of these cases two homonymous lexemes of different kinds are represented in the language. With any interpretation, such words do not form an independent concordant class with its own set of endings.

2.3.1. Derivative types

A number of paired gender words contain characteristic expressive (often pejorative) suffixes -ak-(a), -l-(a), -(in)a, -yag(a), -yg(a), -uk(a), -ul(ya), -ush(a) and etc.: bully, imagined, greedy, modest, badass, mean, neat, scoundrel.

Formations of the feminine morphological gender from nouns of the masculine morphological gender can also act as words of general gender (see. clause 2.1.1. Female morphological genus):

(37) Such a wolf caught - he clings to every cent with his teeth. [Semyon Danilyuk. Business Class (2003)]

(38) Ogurtsov was not alone - some beauty remained sitting in the car, looking boredly to the side and, on the third phrase of the conversation, was certified in a low voice by Ogurtsov as " my wolf". [Andrey Volos. Real Estate (2000) // New World, No. 1-2, 2001]

This also includes hypocoristic (“diminutive”) names, equally formed from a male name with a consonant and a female name with - A: Sasha(< Alexander, Alexandra), Shura, Valya, Zhenya.

A special class consists of nouns ending in - lo, sometimes attributed by researchers to the general genus [Graudina et al. 1976:76], but much more often agreed upon by the neuter gender (in accordance with the morphological genus). It is important to note that they also have a homophonic variant of the feminine morphological gender ( fooled And made a fool, bastard And bastard):

(39) They were afraid to make him laugh, but it was clear to everyone that he was a fake detective, even if such a weirdo, like Kurchev, he even darned him. [IN. Kornilov. Demobilization (1969-1971)]

(40) So, I went back and forth, I couldn’t stop, I kept looking for some honest bank, hoping for something else, cardboard fool… [A. Grachev. Yary-3. Death Warrant (2000)]

(41) She sounds so that from a young age she is incredibly loud, in the roar of thoughts and feelings with which she lives young fool, point-blank you can’t see or hear the quiet or subsiding life of your elders. [G. Shcherbakova. Army of Lovers (1997)]

Verb agreement with these expressive markings is rare:

(42) Pulling the backbone of the samolov tightly, the fish did not go deeper, but went forward to the guard, lashing the water and the boat with torn knees, plugs, hooks, dragging crumpled, crumpled sterlets in a heap, shaking them off the samolov. " Stop being a fool air. I’m getting carried away!” - Ignatyich thought, instantly picking up the slack of the fishing rod and saw a fish near the side of the boat. [Victor Astafiev. King Fish (1974)]

2.3.2. Semantic Negotiation

Profession designation judge– also of a general kind:

(43) Little red judge loved only Vetrov. They met during the shaggy times of Nonna's student years in an unknown year. [D. Simonova. Ghost of the Decor (2002)]

Wed. less frequent use of the word servant as a generic word:

(44) She is my mistress and my servant. [N. G. Chernyshevsky. What to do? (1863)]

(45) In my subordination there was, however, one woman- servant- black Olga, our maid. [E. Limonov. The Book of Water (2002)] (note the use of the word woman, indicating the default application of the word servant to the male gender)

Words of general gender become closer to words of the masculine morphological gender of the type doctor, minister, normatively related to the masculine concordant gender, but also denoting female persons; As one of the coordination options, it is possible for them to agree “by meaning” (and not just by the masculine gender), see.

The transition of words of the general gender into the feminine gender in relation to a man is quite common (cf. also [Graudina et al. 1976:76]):

(46) - Ivan Gavrilych, although rare bore, consider it a strategic banking partner in Europe. [WITH. Danilyuk. Business Class (2003)]

(47) He was lucky with him, which cannot be said about Yuri Ignatievich, the chief deputy, old, bald bore... [E. Volodarsky. Suicide Diary (1997)].

2.4. Gender and concordant class of pronouns-nouns.

2.4.1. Personal and reflexive pronouns

Part of pronoun-nouns ( I, you, we, you are one of us, one of you) can be agreed upon in feminine and masculine genders ( I came, I came) and thus belong to several concordant classes at the same time (or “crossed” classes according to Zaliznyak). Pragmatically, it is less natural, but nevertheless, agreement on the neuter gender is possible:

(48) – I got drunk seventy-five stray dogs. Twenty-eight cats and cats. – The cloud cried more and more. -- I cried out all the water. [WITH. Prokofiev. Patchwork and Cloud]

(49) How come you got there, my child? [B. Ekimov. Stories (2002)]

The reflexive pronoun is structured similarly. myself: Wed yourself And yourself/yourself.

Pronouns he she it have masculine, feminine and neuter gender respectively (by agreement; cf. also), but are not determined by animacy:

(50) Now that the public has had enough of Vysotsky’s tune and it has become possible to read it's all, the enthusiastic cries about the suffering genius fell silent. [IN. Astafiev. Zatesi (1999)]

(51) I looked at the old house. I saw all of him. From rickety antennas to chipped porch steps. [WITH. Dovlatov. Road to a new apartment (1987)]

For the designation of animate neuter nouns, both forms coinciding with the nominative case and forms coinciding with the genitive case are possible. Thus, in the neuter gender, animation is less expressed than in the masculine and feminine:

(52) His everything covered with wool. // There are only covered with wool. (about an animal)

2.4.2. Pronouns like Who And What

Pronouns series -Who(who, no one, no one etc.) – masculine, animate; plural allowed with restrictions ( *who came?, But who are they, these people).

In design who it modern norm requires agreement such within the meaning of ( who is this, such, such), however there was also an archaic inconsistent construction who is this:

(53) [Rakitin:] Who is Belyaev? [Islaev:] And our new teacher, Russian. [AND. S. Turgenev. A Month in the Country (1850)]

Mn. h. Who often found in relative usage, such as in the Corpus those who came occurs comparable to those who came(ratio approximately 1:5). In the 1970s, according to [Graudina I. others 1976:31–32], pl. occurred in approximately 3% of contexts.

(54) Who has encountered the cloning of their nickname? I've already caught four unidentified clones. I wonder for what purpose these "someone" use my nickname is? (otvet.mail.ru)

(55) Art salon 2006 in the Central House of Artists. Who was at an art salon? What did you see? [Contemporary art (forum) (2007)] (we are talking about a plural subject)

(56) Girls, who took the passenger’s seat at the emergency exit? [TO. Kondakov. Two steps forward, one and a half steps back (2003)] (we are talking about one of the “girls”)

Contexts like:

(57) Who was this girl who was this grandfather? [A. Arkhangelsk. 1962. Epistle to Timothy (2006)]

should be interpreted as consistent with the subject (“girl”, cf. Who was this girl).

Pronouns series -What(what, nothing, something etc.) – neuter singular, inanimate:

(58) He explained to me: when we die, we cease to exist as living beings. This biological nothingness. Chemical nothingness- Torricelli void, you can get a space in which not a single molecule remains. [D. Granin. Bison (1987)]

2.5 Variation in genus

Variability of gender affiliation is characteristic of a number of lexemes and their classes throughout the history of the Russian literary language. The work [Savchuk 2011] summarizes the following points of variability associated with gender:

· fluctuations in gender, expressed morphologically ():

§ noun m.r. to a hard consonant and zh.r. to -a: rail - rail (

§ noun to a soft consonant, -zh, -sh: m.r.//zh.r.: roofing felt, roofing felt – roofing felt, roofing felts();

§ noun with suffixes of subjective assessment: m.r.//sr.r., m.r.//zh.r., sr.r.//zh.r.: this little house is a little house, a huge domina - a huge domina, a small bucket - a small bucket ().

§ noun general kind: this weirdo - this weirdo;

· fluctuations in gender, expressed syntactically (see,):

§ noun adamant: fluffy boa – fluffy boa();

§ abbreviations: our housing office – our housing office, ESR increased – ESR increased ();

§ composites: alarm clock went up – alarm clock rose ().

2.5.1. Fluctuations between types of inflection

Variation in syntactic gender is usually associated with fluctuations between morphological genders: slipper - slipper, toast - toast, dahlia - dahlia, pickle - pickle, piano/pianos - piano/piano[Graudina et al. 1976:65–70]. As a rule, variants of three genders differ in the standard endings of the three corresponding morphological genders (-0, -а, -о) up to a fluent vowel (cf. the first two examples) or are homonymous in the initial form (words like piano). Rare, but other options are possible (for example, saiga - saiga, bunch - bunch), cf. Also hangnail - hangnail with different vowels of the suffix. Variation between paired and other genera is common (in most examples it is a choice between pluralia and singularia tantum; lace - lace, grain procurement - grain procurement, milk - milk, thicket - thicket).

(59) F.A. Petrovsky assured that in his youth he saw a hairdressing salon with the inscriptions: “ men's room», « women's hall», « children's room" [M. L. Gasparov. Records and extracts (1998)]

2.5.1.1 Fluctuations between the 0-declension and the a-declension (masculine - feminine)

According to the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language (analysis from [Savchuk 2011]), the fluctuations between the masculine 0-declension and the a-declension (hard version) and, accordingly, the masculine and feminine gender (such as rail - rail) accounts for 37% of variable pairs.

A separate morphological (word-formative) class of words that fluctuate between masculine and feminine genders - prefix formations from verbs (clearing - clearing, perevolok - perevolok, duct - duct, suckers - sucker, gouge - gouge).

(60) The road to Shulpikha went first to the old abandoned clearing(in the Urals they say “ clearing", but not clearing), and then we turned left, where the mowing began. [D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. Green Mountains (1902)]

Adaptation of borrowed words also causes similar variability, which is also associated with the type of source language: diaeresis - diaeresis(Greek dieresis feminine), arabesque/arabesque(French arabesque feminine), giraffe - giraffe(French giraffe is feminine; cf. also above about the variability of animal names).

(61) As it turned out, giraffe served hat stand. [WITH. Dovlatov. Ours (1983)]

Fluctuation in gender is characteristic of words that are rarely used in the singular: these are the names of shoes ( slipper/slipper with normal slippers, keda – keda with normal sneakers, boot - boot, shoes - shoe), food (toast – crouton with normal croutons, pancakes - pancakes with normal pancakes), other semantic classes ( candelabra - candelabra, key - key, rail - rail, haystack - haystack, shutter - shutter, burr - burr, tubercule - tubercule, banknote - banknote).

As noted in [Savchuk 2011], a number of variable forms in modern texts are falling out of use ( shoe– this word in modern texts is applied not to women’s shoes, but to men’s shoes, including heavy ones; apotheosis, keychain). The preferred form may be different within the same semantic group: in a pair boots – boot(the ratio of forms is 5 m.r. singular // 12 zh.r. singular with 71 plural forms) the feminine gender predominates, and in the pair sneaker – sneaker male (the ratio of forms is 14 m.r. units // 3 gender units with 202 plural forms).

2.5.1.2. Oscillations between 2 types of 0-declension (masculine and feminine)

Variation between the masculine and feminine genders is historically characteristic of borrowed nouns with a soft consonant, fluctuating between two types of 0-declension and, accordingly, morphological genders (quadrille, hotel, duel); Currently, for most of these words, one of the genders has been fixed, and variability in this zone has decreased, although it has not completely disappeared. If in the Grammar Dictionary only 22 pairs with such a fluctuation are noted (and only 13% of words that are variable by gender), then at the beginning of the 20th century, normative manuals note another 55 such pairs, which are no longer relevant for the modern language [Savchuk 2011].

(62) Imagine some chevalier, count, marquis, who has in Paris it was a wonderful hotel, several hereditary castles, in order not to die of hunger, he had to become a tutor, that is, a teacher! [M.N. Zagoskin. Moscow and Muscovites (1842-1850)]

(63) Three days later he was last duel. [M.A. Corf. Note about Pushkin (1848)]

(64) Goes to the government permanent square dance, on the one hand, in order to one by one place more Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks “in the pie” of profitable and honorable places, on the other hand, in order to “occupy the attention” of the people. [IN AND. Lenin. State and Revolution (1917)]

In a number of variable pairs there was previously a variant with a hard masculine consonant:

(65) It has been proven that a prism, the base of which is a parallelogram, is divided into two trilateral identical planes passing through diagonals bases, and like the sides of a parallelogram and diagonal can be taken completely arbitrarily, it follows that every three-sided prism is equal in size to another whose base and height are the same. [N.I. Lobachevsky. Geometry (1823)]

In the history of the language, they changed their gender and a number of original nouns to a soft consonant: degree, larynx, seal and etc.

(66) And this is the highest degree perfection that one must strive to achieve. [Catherine II. Order of the Commission on the drafting of a new Code (1767)]

Among new words, such variability is associated with words meaning substances ( gel, shampoo, salt and etc.). In [Savchuk 2011] the variability associated with the animate word was first noted mediocrity(originally – third declension of the Russian birth):

(67) It’s even more scary when a gifted person is doing this. After all mediocrity no one will listen. And when a talented person preaches vileness, a child can believe him. [A. Gulina. Hearing for someone else's pain (2003)] – masculine

(68) AYA mutters to her eating vegetables: “This is our world: any mediocrity, any slaughtered ram depicts the heights and the abyss, banging on a tin drum.” [IN. Aksenov. New sweet style (2005)] – feminine

2.5.1.3. Suffix formations with changes in morphological gender

Fluctuations in gender between masculine (in accordance with the gender of the producing word) and feminine (in accordance with morphological gender) also have nouns with augmentative and expressive suffixes, the morphological gender of which does not correspond to the normative concordant (see. clause 2.1 Morphological genus, clause 2.3 General gender). These are nouns as inanimate ( forehead, brick, cold, rain, passport etc.) and animate ( beast, animal, horse, woman, Lenok, mediocrity). They often also fluctuate between different morphological genera (little man-little man, shed - shed).

2.5.2. Unchangeable words and abbreviations

Borrowed unchangeable nouns (including proper names), which are not adjacent to any original inflectional paradigm, are characterized by variability in gender affiliation, which often changes over time. According to [Graudina et al. 1976:77], in the press of the 1970s, deviations from the dictionary norm in the gender of indeclinable nouns reached 35%. According to [Savchuk 2011], the share of indeclinable words among gender-variant nouns is 32%.

2.5.2.1. Gender of unchangeable words and semantics

Usually, indeclinable inanimate nouns tend to be neuter (neuter morphological gender is characterized by the ending -o/-e); This is also the so-called “dump class”, which includes words with the ending imI.p, which is atypical for the Russian language. units like -u, -i[Kopeliovich 2008:99]. Along with this tendency, gender is often assigned to such words according to their semantic analogue: for example, indeclinable designations for cars belong to the masculine gender (like the word automobile), river Congo- to the feminine gender, as river, and the state Congo– to the average, as state(but in principle, at the same time, substitution of feminine words is also possible - a country or republic, so such a rule cannot be absolute).

2.5.2.2. Names of inanimate objects

According to the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language, designations for food and drinks fluctuate between the masculine and neuter genders (coffee, brandy, whiskey, martini, spaghetti, sherry, suluguni, chili), car brands ( Ferrari, Chevrolet, Audi, Volvo), units of measurement and monetary units ( henry, curie, euro). Almost all of these words are represented in the Corpus, mainly in the masculine gender. According to Google, combined one/one euro The masculine gender is 17 times more common than the neuter gender, in combination white/white martini The masculine gender is almost 100 times more common than the average gender.

Vehicle designations stand out in particular; here, both in the Corpus and on the Internet, for a number of such words the feminine gender, not noted in dictionaries, is in the lead (dictated by semantic analogues car, brand, foreign car, model[Savchuk 2011], and not literary automobile). So, new ferrari on Google is approximately twice as frequent as new ferrari, while the neuter gender recommended by a number of dictionaries for this lexeme is extremely marginal.

(69) She no longer saw white « Audi" ahead. [D. Rubina. A Few Hasty Words of Love (2001)]

(70) Order to all vehicles: block red « Maserati" [IN. Levashov. Patriot Conspiracy (2000)]

According to [Savchuk 2011], the masculine gender is preferred by names Chevrolet, Renault, Peugeot, Porsche, while the feminine gender for names strongly predominates Audi And Volvo. It is noted that “words with the last unstressed open syllable, which can be associated with the unstressed ending of nouns of the 1st declension, gravitate toward the feminine gender” [ibid.].

In some cases, the choice of genus is explained by a long tradition. That's the word coffee, inheriting the masculine gender of an earlier variant coffee male morphological gender [Graudina 1976:79]; its transition to the neuter gender was recognized as normative by V.I. Chernyshev [ibid]. During the Soviet period, the masculine gender of this word began to be perceived as more “prestigious”, as a sign of “culture of speech,” which contributed to the additional conservation of the masculine gender. With words cocoa, coat or metro, in the XIX – early XX centuries. also having a masculine gender, this did not happen. At the same time, in the Russian emigration the masculine gender of the word coffee was easily replaced by the middle one:

(71) Clairville, finishing his drink morning coffee, with an energetic look, outlined his plan of action: he would first rush to the Ministry, to the Intelligence Service, to the headquarters, then find Mr. Blackwood and ask him to talk to the Minister. [M.A. Aldanov. The Cave (1932)]

(72) I also spent this time in Paris: a little less quantity of some products, slightly worse quality of others, counterfeit, but still aromatic coffee, slightly reduced electricity, slightly reduced gas use. [YU. P. Annenkov. Diary of My Encounters (1966)]

Also with Bunin, Nabokov, Andrei Sedykh, Don Aminado, M. Ageev.

(73) A sharp turn, and the car, rustling along the gravel highway, passed a wide gate topped with a trumpeting angel, and stopped near the armory building, scaring away a whole flock of young girls playing serso. [A.V. Chayanov. The Journey of My Brother Alexei to the Land of Peasant Utopia (1920)]

In modern language influenced coffee The masculine gender also received new borrowings, meaning varieties of this drink ( cappuccino, espresso); word mocha had also an outdated version mocha(fluctuating by gender and inclination) [Savchuk 2011]).

Words blinds, khinkali, spaghetti, muesli etc. and toponyms, for example, Caucasian, on - And type Ozurgeti, Kobuleti, Samashki, Shawls, Also Helsinki(cf. in the language of Russian emigration in Passy from Passy) fluctuate between masculine, neuter and paired (pluralia tantum) gender (in the latter case usually feminine morphological gender). The last possibility is suggested by the final -And, as well as for some words semantics (a set of small objects) and synonyms ( curtains, pasta– the last word went a similar way, from It. macaroni), and for toponyms - the existence of toponyms of a paired gender of the type Romny And Cockerels(cf. foreign toponym Thessaloniki, normatively paired gender). Blinds and toponyms in paired gender have an inflected version: blinds, Shaley, Ozurget. The transition to a variable type is associated with the degree of mastery. In all these cases, the indeclinable version predominates, but the indeclinable ones also occur quite systematically:

(74) Spaghetti“More, please,” Pashka kept repeating. - If you don't have it in the closet, we have a reserve. [WITH. Kaledin. Notes of a Grave Digger (1987–1999)]

(75) Let's say another of my many friends fed her husband solid muesli, sausages and black coffee (if he remembered to buy all this), but he has remained with her for ten years and has no plans to leave. [M. Kaminarskaya. Three Merry Soups (2002)]

(76) Such catchy names were especially loved in the Georgian province, somewhere in Ozurgetakh, Akhalkalaki or Sagarejo (K. G. Paustovsky. Book about life)

(77) Instead of slit gills blinds― the dull click of the shutter. [WITH. D. Krzhizhanovsky. Side branch (1927-1928)], cf. :

(78) Bars are closed, cafes are closed. The windows of the houses are closed blinds. [YES. Granin. Upside Down Month (1966)]

2.5.2.3. Animal names

Animal designations fluctuate between masculine and feminine genders (koala, collie, okapi, dingo, gray, guanaco, chow-chow, kangaroo, tsetse- Wed semantically motivating feminine words dog, monkey, antelope, fly, masculine -- parrot and etc.):

(79) The rat kangaroo is much smaller than the first, but in everything similar to common kangaroo. [F.F. Bellingshausen. Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean... (1831)]

Wed. also B. Zhitkov’s story “Kangaroo” (1925), where this word (in the speech of the character and narrator) is translated into the feminine morphological gender, apparently under the influence of an ending similar to the accusative case of this paradigm (cf. the previous example):

(80) The manager came out into the middle and said: “Now, for the most respectable public, the Australian beast kangaroo will show you a boxing exercise. A rare case of art! (B. Zhitkov. Kangaroo)

Word chimpanzee in [Zaliznyak 1967] it is classified as a “crossed” inflectional class, showing signs of all three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter (in it the common gender and the variability between the common and neuter gender intersect). In the Corpus, the neuter gender of this word is not recorded, and the choice of masculine or feminine, as far as one can judge, is not motivated by the gender of the animal: cf. examples where we are talking about a biological species as a whole:

(81) Not so close, it turns out, a relative to us this hairy chimpanzee! ["Knowledge is power" (2003)]

(82) Newborn chimpanzee weighs half as much as a newborn baby. ["Murzilka" (2000)]

2.5.2.4. Type of abbreviations

Similar to the names of animals, the type of abbreviations is determined by the so-called reference word of the full decoding (syntactically the main word of the phrase). Regulatory BAM female ( highway), USA– paired ( states), NKVD– male ( commissariat). However, in this case, too, there is a noticeable tendency for indeclinable abbreviations to agree on the neuter gender (and those resembling the masculine morphological gender in their phonetic structure, such as BAM– to agreement on masculine gender and inclination):

(83) On the site of the Molochov Gate, where fierce battles took place during the Patriotic War of 1812, the all-powerful NKVD has built two residential buildings for the families of their guardsmen, who were most successful in the forests of Katyn. [B. Vasiliev. Look Back Midway (2003)]

(84) If the minister wants to pay for the diversion of Siberian rivers - please, he will want to build it for no one the right BAM- as much as you like, provide foreign exchange assistance to the Communist Party in Cuba - no questions asked! [A. Tarasov. Millionaire (2004)]

A series of consonant abbreviations, starting with NEP(new economic policy) normatively adopted the masculine gender, and often moved from indeclinable to indeclinable, even before the 1970s ( Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Wed ministry, Higher Attestation Commission- Wed commission, university - Wed establishment, TASS – Wed agency, DOSAAF – Wed society, registry office- Wed recording; in the 1970s this process began with Housing office- Wed office; [Graudina et al. 1976:83–84]). Wed. a rare example of transition Housing office into the feminine morphological gender:

(85) - Technician - these are at home, in your office, and here is the caretaker, caretaker of the cemetery. [WITH. Kaledin. Notes of a Grave Digger (1987-1999)]

and a rare example of preserving the inflexibility of a word marriage registry in the masculine:

(86) Service capital registry office summed up its results for 2006 and compared them with the indicators of the previous year. [N. Egorsheva. SASHA + NASTYA (2007)]

2.5.3. Gender of compound words

A special type of hesitation is represented by complex words formed by juxtaposing words of two different genders: raincoat, sofa bed, boarding school. The variability of the gender is combined with the variability of the declension of the first part (raincoat-tents or raincoat). For a number of such words, the indeclinability of the first part and, accordingly, agreement on the last part of the composite predominates, the morphological gender of which is inherited by the word as a whole:

(87) People were crowding in the dugout all the time, the door creaked and slammed cloak-tent, hanged at the entrance by Glushkov. [IN. Grossman. Life and Fate, Part 2 (1960)]

For the word invoice the inclination of both parts predominates; the inflexible first part is rare, although regular, especially in the newspaper corpus, which suggests an evolution in this direction:

(88) Thus, the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, considering a specific case, on the basis of a transport agreement, check-invoices, invoices and other documents established that the transportation was carried out across the territories of several states. [Some problems of the subject of proof in civil proceedings of the Russian Federation (2003)]

It is possible to agree on both parts:

(89) Based on this account-textures the former seller who became the buyer will deduct VAT on the purchased goods. [A. Kurkotov. Return Invoice (2004)]

(90) The idea is to each account-texture I found myself a “seller-buyer” pair, and the amounts for both should match. [E. Lenz. Ministry of Subtraction and Replenishment (2004)] (in this text the first part is declined)

For hyphenated combinations of words of various kinds, meaning persons ( boy-woman, man of mystery, would-be writer), usually semantic agreement [Graudina et al. 1976:91]:

(91) Moreover, “ fire-girl» offered also print laudatory quotes about Golovin, which are also attached. [T. Ustinova. Personal Angel (2002)]

The variability is more pronounced in free combinations of inanimate nouns of different genders, the second of which acts as an application (they can also be considered as occasional compound words).

Normatively, agreement on the first part, which is semantically “main” ( amphibious aircraft m.r. = amphibious aircraft, [Graudina et al. 1976:92]), although this semantic basis is quite “shaky” [ibid], in addition, there is variability in the order of the components: estate-museum And museum-estate.

Agreement may also depend on which side of a given pair the word being agreed upon is located on. Wed. Examples of agreement based on the nearest noun:

(92) This scheme can be considered a modification of the linear one, since its essence lies in the fact that in every episode-meeting the subject and object can be arbitrarily chosen characters. ["Information Technology" (2004)]

(93) First, lightly compact the seam with a hammer, then stamp on it lock-groove, called“zig”, which will prevent the seam from diverging during further compaction. ["Folk Art" (2004)]

but cf. agreement with the first part during postposition:

(94) Later it was discovered that short synthetic double-stranded RNAs, one of the chains of which is complementary to any part gene-targets and correspondingly, his mRNA has an even more powerful effect, completely and strictly selectively inactivating the expression of this gene in animal cells, including mammals. [A. S. Spirin. Fundamental science and problems of environmental safety (2004)]

(95) You won’t believe it, but this-worldly audience applauded almost standing - not so much for this person, but for the director who filmed movie-silence, movie-immobility, movie-emptiness, employee the measure of every sound, every movement, every fullness. [LiveJournal Entry (2004)]

2.6. Gender of agreed words

Actually, grammatical indicators of gender (except for the regular formation of gender in substantivized adjectives and surnames; see below) in the Russian language are found only in word forms to which gender is assigned upon agreement - adjectives, adjective pronouns, numerals and participles of the verb. They're close here l- forms (word forms of the past tense of the verb and as part of the subjunctive mood).

Gender is marked in adjectival word forms cumulatively with indicators of case and singular (in the plural, except for the cases indicated above, gender is not marked), and in the accusative case also animacy. Okay, ending th The adjective expresses, in addition to the masculine gender, the nominative case (or inanimate accusative) and the singular. Indirect cases of masculine and neuter genders coincide (red sun, house, red sun, house).

There are a number of case-generic indicators characteristic of:

• for full forms of adjectives, pronoun-adjectives and participles ( th, -oh, oh in im.p.: good th house, good and I book, good her composition);
• for short forms of adjectives and participles (- 0 , -a, -o: gender only, except phraseological units barefoot and so on.: the house is good, the book is good, the essay is good);
• for possessive adjectives (- 0 , -a, -o in im.p.: Petin house, Petin A book, Petin O essay - the house is good (Petin), the book is good (Petina), the essay is good (Petino).

U - l-form indicators of gender and number coincide with the indicators of short forms of adjectives ( saw, saw A, saw O, saw And ).

2.6.1. Gender and number

2.6.1.1. Pre-reform spelling

After the spelling reform of 1918, the overwhelming majority of Russian word forms do not differ in plural gender in writing (phonetically, the coincidence of genders and the formation of a unified plural paradigm took place back in the 14th-16th centuries). Until 1918, the endings of the plural of feminine and neuter adjectives and adjective pronouns in im.p. and wine.p. ( - iya, -ya) were orthographically different from the masculine plural ( - iе, -е): new(books, fields) – new (chairs); in addition, there was a plural pronoun. w.r. Heѣ and the word form of the pronoun and plural numeral. w.r. oneѣ with a stressed ending (at least in poetry - in accordance with pronunciation); to a small extent, these word forms are preserved in modern reprints of old texts and stylizations. See Pronoun for more details.

In pre-reform spelling, in addition, the gender of pluralia tantum was different: new watch - new scissors(cm. ) .

2.6.1.2. Numerals both and two

In modern Russian, there are different forms of im.p. in the plural. (vin.p. inanimate) numerals both/both, two/two And one and a half/one and a half(cf. word forms fixed for both genders dv e eleven And dv e sti, But dv A twenty). Indirect forms of the numeral also differ both (about O their, about O them, about O them – about e their, about e them, about e them), for which the rule is “artificial”, invented by N.I. Grech [Graudina et al. 1976:256]. In [Zaliznyak 1967] forms of indirect cases of feminine pronouns both called "obsolete"; A similar point of view was expressed by V.V. Vinogradov.

However, in modern texts the mixing of these word forms is observed in both directions:

(96) There magnetic radiation supports an object with both sides, so you don’t have to tiptoe around the apartment, fearing that the top will fall down. ["Hooligan" (2004)]

(97) Then somehow he grinned very charmingly and winked both eyes["Theater Life" (2004)]

At the same time, feminine forms, in general, are preserved in the language; yes, combinations both hands, both hands, in both hands, both hands have been found since 1967 (after the publication of the “Russian Nominal Inflection”) 758 times, and non-normative both hands etc. – only 5. In the Corpus of oral texts, the ratio for these contexts is 17:1 in favor of the normative form of the numeral; Wed the only deviation:

(98) [No. 0] Do you personally approve or not of Kasyanov’s resignation? [No. 8, husband, 61] With both hands for / that it was removed on time. [Conversation with a sociologist on socio-political topics (2004)]

According to the Google search engine, the ratio both hands / both hands lower than in the Corpus, which includes mostly edited written texts - 20:1.

The predominance of normative forms is somewhat less in combinations with objects that have natural pairing, but also in combinations with other lexemes, for example, the word side: in the main corpus the predominance of the normative form of the numeral both– 58:1, in newspaper – 181:1, and in oral even 4.5:1. According to Google, the ratio is slightly lower than with the lexeme hand– 16:1.

(99) Because I believe / that any action should be non-violent / and there should always be a step towards / with both sides. [Conversation with E. Shklyarsky (rock band “Picnic”) on the radio station “Our Radio” (2003)]

In Soviet newspapers of the 1970s, according to [Graudina et al. 1976:256], non-normative forms wallpaper-/both- for all lexemes reached 5%.

2.6.1.3. Selective designs

In selective designs (one of which, each of which) the choice of gender of the pronoun is dictated by the gender of the coreferent noun, represented in the sentence only by the plural form:

(100) Several classes tasks for each of which comparative testing of solution methods implemented in the program is carried out. ["Information Technology" (2004)]

(101) There are 19 systems certification, inside each of which― its own accreditation system... [“Aerospace Defense” (2003)]

(102) Draw diagrams of possible connections of three resistors, each of which has a resistance R. [B. Lukashik, E. Ivanova. Collection of problems in physics. 7-9 grades (2003)]

2.6.1.4. Number expression and morphological gender

Plural word forms have a set of endings dictated, although not unambiguously, by the type of inflection (the so-called “morphological gender”, see above). In particular, in the plural for nouns of different morphological genders, sets of endings of the nominative and genitive case are contrasted [Zaliznyak 1967]:

• male morphological gender : -i – -ov/s – 97.3% of cases;
• female morphological gender: - and – -0 – 98.9% of cases;
• average morphological genus: - a – 0 – 96.4% of cases.

3. Syntax

When agreeing, a noun (and a pronoun-noun) dictates the choice of the concordant class of the dependent adjective (adjective, participle, pronoun-adjective, numeral): new (your, second) doll,new (your, second) knife,new (your, second) ice cream. When agreeing by gender, adjectives have the same set of grammes as the noun (including the so-called paired gender(see clause 2.2): one sleigh, each of the sleighs).

Phenomena that are usually not classified as such are close to agreement by genus. This:

• coordination of the predicate with the subject in the past tense and subjunctive mood (historically the form of the past tense in -l– agreed participle):

(103) If so is mine my heart responded, so mine mind brightened, my will aroused, my whole being tensed with the desire to live like this, to respond to these words with my whole life - I not only recognized myself, I learned something new about God. [Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom). About Christian life (1990)]

• coordination anaphoric pronouns(see Pronouns) with their coreferent noun by gender:

(104) I climb into fridge. He EMPTY I look at the tables - there is nothing... [Woman + man: Marriage (forum) (2004)]

(105) The peasants and the governors, in solidarity with them, urgently asked the Deputy Prime Minister to “reach president", to That reined in the "oil barons". [AND. Pylaev. War disrupts the sowing season (2003)]

Like compatible parts of speech ( new doctor), coordination of pronouns is carried out according to meaning, based on the gender of the referent:

(106) Talking about his political career, deputy stated that if to her offered to join the government, she would like to receive the portfolio of Minister of Defense, because she loves the military very much: “They are as direct and honest as I am.” [ABOUT. Boytsova. "Playboy" almost stripped a deputy (2002)]

4. Semantics

In general, the question of the semantic motivation of the Russian gender (as in other languages ​​of the world) remains open (cf. [Plungyan 2000:154], [Kopeliovich 2008:106]), however, for a number of groups of nouns, corresponding trends can be determined.

4.1. Gender and gender

The grammatical gender of animate names correlates to a certain extent with the ungrammatical (nominative) meaning of biological sex. For the most part, nouns denoting persons have a gender corresponding to their gender. A number of such designations, mainly terms of kinship, are tied to a specific gender and, accordingly, gender (the meaning of gender is part of the semantics of the root: man Woman,father, mother, uncle, aunt; Wed unpaired typist, ballerina, ambassador, driver). Other nouns form the so-called sexual paradigm [Krongauz 1996] or gender pairs [Voeykova 2008], that is, word-formation pairs of designations for persons of different sexes: salesman - saleswoman, Frenchman - Frenchwoman, nephew - niece; pairs type Uncle Aunt can be considered as suppletive forms of the sexual paradigm.

E. Spencer () sees in the Russian gender the features of an inflectional category; So, regular education:

• masculine and feminine forms of the personal pronoun ( he she it, pl. h. They(there is also an inflectional interpretation of these forms, cf. Pronoun);
• substantivized adjectives ( duty officer - duty officer, student - student);
• surnames on -ov/-ev, -oh/-y (Ivanov - Ivanova, Dostoevsky - Dostoevskaya, pl. h. Ivanovs, Dostoevskys).

This is partly true for names like Alexander - Alexandra, Evgeniy - Evgenia. Wed. advertising poster where Valentines used similarly Ivanovs, for a generic pair of names: Discounts for all Valentines on February 14th.

There are words that mean certain roles, functions, occupations for which the masculine gender is normal, “by default” covering both sexes:

(107) For example, Russian man, thinking about national pride, says: “Russian spirit, Eurasia,” and the listener perceives this thought as “enslavement of the countries of Eastern Europe.” [L. Perlovsky. Consciousness, language and mathematics (2003)]

(108) Do not despise, my dear reader, raven is an excellent meat for broth. [Recipes of national cuisines: France (2000-2005)]

(109) Now teachers they order gifts for themselves... some a gold chain, some a food processor... [Our Children: Teenagers (2004)] (we are clearly talking mainly about women)

Adjacent to the same class are general designations of persons not marked by gender: Human, subject, individual(um) masculine, face- neuter, a person, personality, individual, also a function designation (not necessarily personal!) victim– female. From the designations of a number of professions and ranks of type director, professor, doctor feminine form ( headmistress, professor, doctor) is either colloquial and reduced in nature, or (in cases general's wife, professor's wife) is interpreted (also) as "X's wife". About the transition of words like doctor in unstable general genus see .

(110) - Do you like the poetry of the Acmeists? - asked Moskvich, tall, thin or professor, or gangster, or a gypsy. [IN. Aksenov. Round the clock non-stop (1976)]

Words denoting animals correlate weaker with biological sex, despite the presence of word-forming nests with a sexual paradigm ( cat - cat, wolf - she-wolf) or roots whose meaning includes the component “male” or “female” ( rooster – chicken, ram – sheep, male – bitch). Thus, species names have a specific gender-non-motivated gender, and these names are applied to an animal when its sex is unknown or unimportant. So, there is a neutral cat, But cat– usually about an animal of known sex; neutral dog vs. additionally marked stylistically dog and special gender designations male And bitch. It has been noticed that for wild animals the unmarked gender is often masculine (bear, wolf, tiger), for households – female ( pig, sheep, chicken) [Voeykova 2008]. For most animals, the designation of sex is not determined word-formatively, but only with the help of words male And female(owl, frog, grasshopper, woodpecker and so on.). Wed. problems in translating animal tales: Kipling's Bagheera panther, Milne's Owl, Carroll's Caterpillar caterpillar - all masculine (he); during translation, either the gender or the name of the character changes (Owl, Worm, etc.)

In questionnaires, forms, etc., it is common to indicate word forms in two genders (often abbreviated) depending on the gender of the respondent ( was born; spouse)); it is understood that in each specific case one of the options can be left and the second crossed out:

(111) How He/she perceived counselors, therapists, teachers, as well as managers and government officials? [AND. P. Pronin. Psychologist's work with members of new religious movements (2004)]

Under the influence of the phenomenon of “political correctness” in Western European languages ​​(cf. English s/he ‘she or he’, German man/frau ‘indefinite pronoun’ instead of man from the grammaticalized Mann ‘man’), designations like he she, he or she as an anaphoric reference to notations like reader speaking,listening:

(112) It (the book by A. A. Zaliznyak) is written captivatingly and is accessible to the non-professional reader - if he she will take the trouble to understand unfamiliar to him to her subjects. [IN. M. Zhivov. What a Forger Can't (2004)]

4.2. Semantic coordination

A series of words (doctor, director, secretary - about two hundred in total, see [Graudina et al. 1976:96–101] ) , normatively belonging only to the masculine gender, throughout the 20th century tended to act in general kind(see paragraph 2.3), or, which is the same thing, be consistent in meaning in the case when they mean women.

According to [Zaliznyak 1967], the tendency to agree these words according to the feminine gender does not apply to indirect cases (* this doctor), in this case they should be separated into a separate concordant class (different from the general genus with the full paradigm), or a separate lexeme should be considered doctor feminine without indirect cases.

According to the Internet, the combination this doctor quite often noted in modern electronic communication. The clarification in the following example is typical:

(113) This (rather this) doctor I found out about 2.5 years ago. I go to her as if on a holiday. (www.cooking.ru)

Let's also note a very early example:

(114) I invited this doctor Radzyankov. (Letter to Olga Berggolts from her mother Maria Timofeevna, September 1935)

4.3. Gender of inanimate nouns and neuter “default” gender

The grammatical gender of inanimate names in general does not correlate with any semantic component, cf. sofa - chair - stool, knife - sieve - fork, cheese - butter - sour cream. However, in a number of cases such a correlation can be traced, for example:

• Among the names of organizations, groups, and individual objects, the masculine gender predominates [Grammatika 1980(1):467];
• masculine all month designations ( January December);
• most disease names (illness, cold, pain, illness, fever, rubella, mumps, urticaria) and many words with a negative evaluation ( daub, bad taste, nonsense) female. It was noted (V.V. Vinogradov) that words of the feminine gender are more expressive than those of the masculine gender.
• among abstract vocabulary (due to productive classes of verbal derivatives in -nie, -stvo) the neuter gender predominates.

The neuter gender is used by default when there is a zero coordination controller or an indefinite subject (“null elements”, according to I. A. Melchuk), for more details see Impersonality:

(115) Once upon a time pulled propagandist to tell about the military path of his heroic “formation”, as if by the way, to report how at the Popelnya station he was once almost killed: bomb fragment knocked out glass in the sorting building and that fragment hit the wall, right above the boss’s head. [IN. Astafiev. Overtone (1995-1996)]

Wed. also the use of predicates, going back to the use of the default adjective in the neuter gender as a predicate with an infinitive subject:

(116) Cold, by the way, almost fell off him, driving three and a half meters in front of the editorial office, and said that he would ride creepy. [TO. Doroshin. My stool with a motor (2004)]

The use of adjectives in the instrumental case is similar. units (homonymous m. r. singular) with verbs like seem[Kopeliovich 2008:31]:

(117) It seems to us obvious that the shadow economy will concentrate in economically profitable activities, leaving “unprofitable” industries unattended. ["Statistical Issues" (2004)]

5 Conclusions

The category of genus is characterized by the duality inherent in categories of type concordant class(see point 1): it is both word-classifying(see Grammatical category) (in nouns and noun pronouns) and conciliatory(see Grammatical category) (for other parts of speech - adjective, pronoun-adjective, numeral, verb), and it is in the coordination of adjectival parts of speech and the past tense verb that the classification of nouns by gender is diagnosed.

In the Russian language, gender largely correlates with the inflectional type of the noun (morphological gender).

The gender of nouns has certain zones of variability (indeclinable nouns, words with a soft consonant) - namely, precisely those where the choice of morphological gender is difficult. In the choice of gender of nouns there are two opposing tendencies - formal ( coat, cocoa s.r., BAM, housing office m.r., nerd zh.r.) and semantic ( doctor zh.r., unfortunate artist m.r.).

6. Statistics

Statistical data are presented for the Subcorpus with homonymy removed.

Table 1. Gender as a word-classifying category of nouns

Table 2. Gender as a word-classifying category of pronouns-nouns

Table 3. Gender (and number) as a concordant category of adjectives (+ past tense of the verb)

Masculine
Feminine	311260 // Computer linguistics and intellectual technologies: Based on the materials of the annual International Conference “Dialogue” (Bekasovo, May 25-29, 2011), 10(17). M.: Publishing house of the Russian State University for the Humanities. 2011. pp. 562–579. Corbett. G.G. Gender Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991. Spencer A. Gender as an inflectional category // Journal of Linguistics, 38(2). 2002.