The category of gender

In Ukrainian all the nouns without exception, irrespective of the fact whether they denote the living beings or lifeless objects belong according to their ending to one of three grammatical genders: the masculine gender, the feminine gender or the neuter gender. In modern English vice versa there is no division of nouns according to the grammatical gender on the basis of their morphological characteristics. As a consequence, the noun in modern English does not have the grammar category of gender.

Though some linguists believe that the English noun has the possibility (though quite a limited one) to express the category of gender. In particular, the means of expressing the gender is considered to be the ability of many nouns to correlate with some of personal pronouns (he, she or it). Yu.O. Zhluktenko agrees with
O.I. Smirnits’kyj who pointed out that the choice of the pronoun in such cases is wholly caused by the semantics of the noun, which is correlated with it, e.g.: the noun “ brother ” and the pronoun “ he ” correlate between themselves not directly and not formally but because of the fact that they both denote the person of the masculine sex. That is why, in such cases, we classify according to the gender not the words as they are but the objects, denoted by corresponding words (“за родом” класифікуються не слова як такі, а певною мірою самі предмети, що позначаються відповідними словами) [5; 45].

Almost the only word building element that has the distinct gender characteristic is the noun suffix - ess, with the help of which we form the nouns of the feminine gender from nouns of the masculine gender: host – hostess, poet – poetess, tiger – tigress, actor – actress (compare the Ukrainian suffix - к(а): лікар-ка, школяр-ка).

In the rest of cases the fact of belonging to this or that sex is expressed by the semantics of the word itself, as it can be observed similarly in Ukrainian (cow корова, bull бик); or it can be rendered with the help of adding of one of such words to the word, semantics of which is not clear regarding its gender. As a result of such agglutination there appear compound words in the language of the type: he-goat, she-goat, boy-student, girl-student, bull-elephant, cow-elephant etc. Sometimes in the role of such an agglutinative particle –, a determiner of gender, – the proper name is used, e.g.: tom-cat (masculine gender). In spite of this a large number of English words can be similarly used to denote either the female or the male sex, e.g.: pupil, friend, teacher, wolf etc.

Though the category of gender is expressed very distinctly by the nouns of the Ukrainian language, it should be pointed out that it has undergone considerable changes as well. The grammatical gender of the noun is determined according to some characteristics, namely: the meaning of the word, its morphological structure (suffixes, flexions) and the syntactic connections in the sentence (forms of coordinated (узгоджений) adjectives, pronouns, verbs). The word ending has a great importance in determining the gender of a noun – the name of the lifeless object. The characteristic ending of the feminine gender in Ukrainian is the ending - а (я) and the hard or the soft consonant (шахта, земля, ніч, повість), of the neuter gender - о, -е (вікно, поле). Nouns of masculine gender usually end in a consonant (чоловік, учитель, студент). In plural nouns of all genders in the Ukrainian language have similar endings, in other words, the forms of plural now, in fact, do not render gender characteristics. That is why nouns that are used only in plural (ворота, вила, окуляри, висівки, покидьки) do not have gender.

The ending of the nominative case merely though is not enough to determine the noun gender. In Ukrainian there are some nouns of masculine gender which have similar endings with nouns of the feminine and the neuter genders, e.g.: собака, п’яниця, голова, суддя, клич (пор. ніч), промінь (пор. повість), Дніпро, батько, Сірко. That is why at determining the noun gender the whole paradigm (the system of cases) is taken into consideration: compare, промінь, променя, променем … and повість, повісті, повісті … Some nouns are used both for the masculine and the feminine gender without any change of endings: сирота, голова, суддя. Such nouns as usually have the masculine gender though can be used to denote persons of the female sex: професор, доктор, кандидат, бригадир etc. For a lot of nouns – the names of creatures/animals, the gender is something conventional, since they are usually used to denote two biological species, without their differentiation, e.g.: кінь, собака, кішка, олень etc. The same happens with the majority of small according to their age creatures/animals, they are usually of neuter gender: теля, порося, лоша and even дівча, хлоп’я.

Therefore, in the modern Ukrainian language the grammatical gender is to a large extent a formal category, sometimes very little connected with the content of the notion, expressed by the word itself. In spite of this the category of gender has not died out and is perceived by the linguistic way of thinking as the necessary one, since it fulfills an important function of the organization of words in the sentence, in coordinating nouns with adjectives and other words of the adjectival type as well as gender forms of verbs (категорія сприймається мовним мисленням як необхідна, бо вона виконує важливу функцію в організації слів у реченні й узгодженні з іменником прикметників та інших слів прикметникового типу і родових форм дієслова). The English language does not have such a system of coordination that is why the category of gender could not remain for a long time in the language [5; 46].

 

5. The category of the names of living beings
and lifeless objects

Some linguists believe that besides the categories of number, case, gender, the noun can also express some other categories. Thus, according to Yu.O. Zhluktenko [5; 46–47], there can be differentiated the category of the names of living beings and lifeless objects (категорія назв істот та неживих предметів).

According to their semantics nouns always denote living beings, lifeless objects or abstract notions. This semantic division can be reflected as well in the grammatical structure of the noun. In English some differences in this relation exist only by the usage of the possessive case, characteristic usually of nouns which are the names of living beings. The possessive case though is also used with quite a large number of nouns denoting lifeless objects or abstract notions. Nouns can also differ one from the other by the fact that the names of living beings correlate with personal pronouns he, she and the relative pronoun who, whereas the names of lifeless objects correlate with the personal-objective pronoun (особово-предметний) pronoun it and relative pronouns – that, which. Above it was mentioned that these correlation are of the lexical character but not of the grammar one. That is why it can be considered that the category of names of living beings and lifeless objects is not expressed in the grammatical structure of English nouns.

Somehow the other way it happens in Ukrainian where there exist some formal and some grammatical differences between nouns denoting living beings and lifeless objects. These differences are not numerous: nouns of the masculine gender (names of living beings) have the form of the accusative case of both numbers similar with the form of the genitive case (немає батька, бачу батька; не було брата, покликали брата, братів), and the names of lifeless objects have the form of the accusative case similar with the form of the nominative case (стоїть стіл, бачу стіл; це наш двір, бачимо двір, двори). But nouns of the feminine and neuter gender in singular are not differentiated according to this category: all the nouns of the feminine gender in - а, -я have the ending - у, -ю in the accusative case (бачу жінку, чую пісню) and nouns of the feminine gender with the final consonant and all the nouns of the neuter gender have the form of the accusative case similar with the form of the nominative case (читаю повість, відчиняю вікно). Only in plural form of nouns of the feminine gender in - а, -я there also is a formal difference between the names of living beings and lifeless objects, e.g.: стоять жінки, бачимо жінок but лунають пісні, чуємо пісні.

The consistent (послідовний) grammatical expression of the category of names of living beings and lifeless objects is pertaining in Ukrainian only to the names of persons. This noun class has also the peculiar vocative case form (особлива клична відмінкова форма): хлопче, жінко etc. The names of lifeless objects can be used in the vocative form only in the case of personification, e.g.: О земле, велетнів роди! (П. Тичина). But in general there is also a number of deviations from the consistent expression of this category.

Discussion questions and exercise tasks:

I. Consider your answers to the following:

1. Dwell upon the classes of nouns differentiated according to different criteria. Provide examples.

2. State the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. Are there any similarities and differences in these groups of nouns in the contrasted English and Ukrainian languages?

3. Describe the noun as a part of speech according to the five characteristics. Compare the English noun with the Ukrainian noun in regard to their grammatical paradigm, grammatical categories, combinability potential, ways of functioning in the sentence.

4. Provide examples of nouns containing typical stem-building elements in English and Ukrainian.

5. Describe the typical oppositions within the system of the English noun and the Ukrainian noun. Show differences and similarities.

6. Give the general characteristic of grammatical categories of the noun in English and Ukrainian. Are there any differences in their number or ways of their expression?

7. Dwell upon the category of number in English and in Ukrainian. By way of contrasting show similarities and differences in the forms of number expression in both languages.

8. What groups of nouns are included by “singularia tantum” nouns and correspondingly “pluralia tantum” nouns in English and in Ukrainian? Are these groups similar in both contrasted languages or are there any differences?

9. Give general characteristic of the category of case in two languages under study.

10. What is the sphere of usage of the English possessive case in comparison with the common case?

11. What is the difference between the “dependent possessive case” and “independent possessive case”? Provide examples.

12. Describe the meanings expressed by the Ukrainian 7 cases. Provide examples.

13. How is the category of gender expressed in English and in Ukrainian?

14. Present the opinions of scholars who differentiate other grammatical categories of a noun besides the categories of number, gender and case. Are there grounded reasons to present such points of view?

15. Provide the summing up of the main similar and different characteristics of the English noun versus the Ukrainian noun.

 

II. Recognize different types of nouns. Identify the nouns as belonging to the following types: common or proper noun, countable noun or uncountable noun, concrete or abstract noun, collective noun, etc. Remember that the same noun can represent multiple types and vice versa not all the categories apply to each noun (e.g. philosophy is a common, abstract, uncountable noun).

a) in the English language:

1. “Your books have sold millions of copies,” the young interviewer was saying. (fiction writing)

2. According to Kant and Laplace, the original mass of gas cooled and began to contract. (academic prose)

3. The minibar was filled with candy, mineral water, decaffeinated soft drinks and dairy products. “These are the kind of munchies which our research found helps sleep,” said Jeremy Baka, Hilton spokesman. (newspaper writing)

4. You guys can go to a whole bunch of places and you should not go to New Mexico. (conversation)

*The material is taken from “Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English Workbook” by Susan Conrad, Douglas Biber, Geoffrey Leech, Pearson Education Limited, 2003. – P.21.

b) in the Ukrainian language:

Як свідчить людська історія, спочатку смисл слова “толерантність” зводився лише до віротерпимості – прийняття (часто з внутрішньою духовною боротьбою, негативними емоціями) різноманітних думок і принципів різних людей в одному соціумі, але згодом виникло й інше трактування цього поняття, водночас із історичними змінами в житті людства. Саме воно якнайкраще відповідає реаліям сучасного життя. Це – поважне ставлення до існування альтернативи в соціальному й побутовому житті людини, вартісність самої присутності Іншого із самобутнім світоглядом, культурою, формою поведінки, життєвими орієнтирами й цінностями. Толерантність є і має бути необхідною якістю поведінки індивіда початку ХХІ століття, бо передбачає воднораз і терпимість до несхожості іншого, і готовність прийняти його як рівного в середовищі Своїх і Чужих.

*The material is taken from the article “Валерія Нечерда. Толерантність // Урок Української. № 9-10, 2007”. – P.17.

III. Read each sentence, and identify the underlined noun as countable or uncountable. What aspects of each noun’s form, meaning or context helped you to decide that it was countable or uncountable? Provide Ukrainian equivalents to the underlined English nouns. Do English and Ukrainian nouns coincide in their characteristics?

1. He spends as much time out of the home as possible (fiction writing).

2. Young people have got to stand up for their rights (conversation).

3. How to achieve a happy love life (newspaper writing).

4. Nevertheless speaking French imposes some order, some uniformity (newspaper writing).

5. We’re not going to war over this, I hope (fiction writing).

6. For many of us this is a matter of life and death (newspaper writing).

7. She had to save face with David and Connie knew it (fiction writing).

8. Andrew even bought a football but hid it from Louise (fiction writing).

9. “No more sex and violence, Katheryn,” joked David (fiction writing).

*The material is taken from “Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English Workbook” by Susan Conrad, Douglas Biber, Geoffrey Leech, Pearson Education Limited, 2003. – P.21–22.

 

IV. Define the type of declension (I, II, III or IV) and the gender of the given Ukrainian nouns. Think up at least five sentences, using some of these nouns, and render these sentences into English. Do the case and gender characteristics coincide in both languages?

Зустріч, стаття, круча, площа, голуб, пристань, миша, журнал, робітник, ніч, молодь, лоша, нарис, слоненя, порося, ім’я, друг, Ілля, подорож.

 

V. a) Define to which semantic group of Singularia Tantum nouns belong the following English and Ukrainian nouns:

Courage, weather, peasantry, hair, womankind, advice, the North, gold, water, brushwood.

Визнання, гамір, південь, молоко, деревина, капустиння, хліб, професура, птаство, мир.

b) Define to which semantic group of Pluralia Tantum nouns belong the following English and Ukrainian nouns:

Drafts, contents, means, scissors, outskirts, commas, the Alps, the Carpathians, sweepings, billiards.

Граблі, Атени, Черкаси, будні, іменини, покидьки, кеглі, шорти, сани, жмурки.

Think of the examples when certain singularia or pluralia tantum nouns do not coincide in the contrasted English and Ukrainian languages. For example, the Ukrainian pluralia tantum noun вечорниці does not have its English pluralia tantum equivalent.