Tymchuk A.V.

Chernivtsi National Yuri Fedkovych University

ON THE PROBLEM OF GENDER DIVISION OF NOUNS IN MODERN ENGLISH

The problematic character of gender in Modern English is a rather burning issue. One of the approaches states that in Modern English there is no category of gender as there are no formal means of its expression (N.M. Rayevska ), whereas the another holds that gender in Modern English is a lexico -grammatical (M. Blokh ), syntactical (L.A. Tympko ) or even a social category (O.B. Khanas ). The diachronic development of gender was studied by K.Brunner and A.I. Smirnitski . Thus, the actuality of our investigation is stipulated by the necessity to outline some common view on the problem specified. In the present article we shall overview the major gender approaches.

In the view of N.M. Rayevskaya [3;49], there is no grammatical gender in Modern English as the noun does not possess any special gender forms; neither does the accompanying adjective, pronoun or article indicate any gender agreement with the head noun. Unlike many languages that have gender, English has very few clear formal markers that indicate the gender of nouns; the situation in English is much less rigid and clear-cut since many words may have she , he or it as substitutes. She thus claims that it seems justified to restrict the term “gender” to those languages that have precise and mutually exclusive noun-classes marked by clear formal markers. However, in English the category of gender in general can be manifested in a language by a variety of different grammatical and lexical means or forms of expression.

M. Blokh [2 ;215 ] suggests the following view on gender in Modern English. He states that an essential division of grammatical categories is based on the changeability factor of the exposed feature. Namely, the feature of the referent expressed by the category can be either constant or variable. An example of constant feature category can be seen in the category of gender, which divides the class of English nouns into non-human names, human male names, human female names, and human common gender names:

Scheme 1

human male names

human names human female names

nouns human common gender names

non-human names

This division is represented by the system of the third person pronouns serving as gender indices. The strong member of the upper opposition is the human subclass of nouns, its sememic mark being "person", or "personality". The weak member of the opposition comprises both inanimate and animate non-person nouns. The strong member of the lower opposition is the feminine subclass of person nouns, its sememic mark being "female sex". The masculine subclass of personal nouns makes up the weak member of the opposition. Thus the gender of nouns in this classification is determined by its meaning and categorical features.

In the view of L.A. Tympko [1 ;30 ], the gender of nouns in Modern English is a mere classificatory category, i.e. the gender division of nouns is expressed not as variable forms of words but as noun classification. It indicates the distribution of substantive nominators into a number of classes, each having its own classificatory features. The reference of nouns to the grammatical gender-classes is idio -ethnically fixed in languages, it is regulated by purely linguistic factors, the grammatical gender of nouns is marked grammatically by affix noun-forms. The gender-class membership of nouns is marked in most languages by the affix forms syncretically , i.e. in a fused or merged way, together with other categories.

It is rather difficult to explain what logical basis underlies the correlation of nouns with the grammatical gender. Hypothetically, the difference lies in the fact that the objects of reality are viewed according to their ascription to male and female sex taking into account animation / inanimation and personality / impersonality. Accordingly the following classification is suggested:

Scheme 2

male - m

personal female - f

animate dual gender - m, f

common gender – m, f, n

noun collective noun - n, pl

non-personal higher male animal – m, n

higher female animal – f, n

lower animal – n (m, f)

inanimate inanimate – n

In the plural, all the gender distinctions are neutralized in the immediate explicit expression, though they are rendered obliquely through the correlation with the singular or from the context.

Thus, we may conclude that the proper categorial classification of nouns that underlies their division into genders is important to understand how various ways of gender expression are applied. Since in Modern English gender is attributed to nouns not by form but by meaning, we can say that English has the so-called “natural” gender, which can be expressed in the variety of ways. These ways are prospects of further investigation.

References:

1. Тимпко Л.А. Род как историческая и социолингвистическая категория. – М.: Из-во Моск . ун-та, 1985. – 46с.

2. Blokh M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. – M.: Высшая школа . – 2003 - 383p.

3. Rayevska N.M. Modern English Grammar. – Kiev: Vy??a ?kola, 1976. – 304p.