Which folklore works are closely related. The place of folklore in Russian literature
Instructions
When determining female For inanimate nouns, keep in mind that they have case endings singular-а, -я (wall, will) and zero if the noun ends in soft sign(rye). For animate nouns, the defining feature is that they belong to female creatures (girl, cat). In order not to confuse the endings of feminine and feminine nouns male, substitute the pronouns “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).
Determine the masculine gender of nouns by the ending of the form: zero for words ending with a consonant (house, table), -a, -ya - for animate nouns, male creatures (uncle, Seryozha). In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in a soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, my” (stump, day) to check.
Determine neuter nouns by the endings of the initial form -о, -е and by substituting the pronouns “it, mine” (field, window). Please note that the group of indeclinable nouns ending in the combination -mya also belongs to the neuter gender (tribe, seed, etc.). Among neuter nouns there are almost no animate ones, their number is very small (child, creature, animal).
Among nouns, there are several special groups, the gender of which is difficult. These include common nouns, indeclinables and compound words.
Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to female or male objects. For example, a girl (feminine), an arrogant boy (masculine). General nouns include those that denote the qualities of people (glutton, ignorant, crybaby) or the names of persons by profession, position, occupation (Ivanov - architect Ivanov).
Keep in mind that the gender of indeclinable nouns is related to their animate/inanimate nature, specific/generic concept. For animate indeclinable nouns, determine gender by gender (Monsieur, Miss). Nouns that give names to animals and birds are masculine (pony, kangaroo, cockatoo). Inanimate ones usually belong to the neuter gender ( , muffler ). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage (feminine), Hindi - language (masculine), etc.
To determine the gender of indeclinable proper nouns denoting geographical names, select a generic concept (, city, river, etc.). For example, the city of Rio de Janeiro (masculine), the Gobi Desert (feminine).
Determine the gender of compound abbreviated words (abbreviations) by the gender of the leading word of the “deciphered” phrase: UN – United Nations, leading word“organization” (feminine).
note
Some nouns have variant gender forms. Moreover, some of them are equal in rights (aviary - aviary, banknote - banknote), and the rest have stylistic marks: hall - hall (obsolete form), giraffe - giraffe (obsolete form).
For nouns that are used only in the form plural, the category of the genus is not defined (whitewash, vice, everyday life).
Related article
Sources:
- Russian language genders
To determine the gender of nouns, you must first determine the word that answers the question who, what. This is a noun. In Russian it can be masculine, feminine and neuter.
Instructions
Determine the gender of a noun by its ending or final consonant. The masculine gender includes words ending with a consonant and ending with –y. For example, a house, a loaf. The feminine gender includes nouns ending in –a, -ya, -iya. For example, cousin, . The neuter gender includes nouns ending in -о, -е, -и. For example, a window, a dress.
See if this noun is an exception. These include nouns ending in -ь. Such nouns can be either feminine or masculine. Thus, the dictionary is masculine, and the word notebook is feminine.
Pay attention to the gender of animate nouns. These are nouns that mean living things. Such words are either feminine or masculine. Exceptions are children, who are neuter. For animate nouns, determine gender either by the natural gender or animal, or by the ending of the noun. Elephant is a masculine noun and monkey is a feminine noun.
Correctly determine the gender of nouns denoting professions. They are masculine and feminine. Moreover, most nouns denoting professions are masculine: doctor, engineer, .
Special attention Pay attention to the gender of borrowed nouns. Nouns in a foreign language often have -i, -u, -yu, which are atypical for the Russian language. Such nouns do not change either by number or by case. The masculine gender includes names of cities and islands. Refers to the feminine gender female names and surnames, names of rivers and names of newspapers. The neuter gender includes names inanimate objects.
note
Nouns ending in consonant and -y are always masculine.
Most feminine nouns of foreign origin end in -iya.
Nouns ending in the suffixes –onok, -enok are always masculine.
Related article
Sources:
- “Grammar of the Russian language in illustrations”, Pekhlivanova K.I., Lebedeva M.N., 1985.
- how to determine gender in Russian
Definition sort of in Russian language is one of the most common tasks for people learning this language. In Russian language there are three sort of– male, female and average. In addition, there is a general genus, the definition of which causes the greatest difficulty.
You will need
- Ability to identify endings various parts speeches
Instructions
Highlight the endings that agree with with the right word adjectives and verbs. Most often, this is enough to determine. Put the verb in the past tense, and take the noun and adjective in the nominative case. The best friend has come, the best friend has come, a new one has risen. These are examples of adjective and verb endings in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender.
Determine whether the word you are looking for denotes a profession or type of activity. Most of these words are formally masculine. For example, the new doctor said (o), the new doctor said (o); He is an excellent specialist, she is an excellent specialist. Please note that some profession names do not have a masculine form sort of. For example, the word "ballerina" has only a feminine form sort of.
Remember that words like “klutz, fidget, bully, ignorant, greedy, smart” and the like refer to the general gender. These words give emotional coloring both male and female words sort of, and name the occupation of these persons.
remember, that sort of Abbreviations are a particularly complicated case. For abbreviations formed by adding parts of a word, determine the gender by the main word: new Sberbank, high-quality organizational work. In the case when a word is formed by adding sounds or letters (PTU, RAS), clear rules for determining sort of No.
Form the gender of indeclinable nouns borrowed from other languages according to the following rule. If a noun denotes an object, then it belongs to the neuter gender (coat, muffler). If it means , then it is masculine (chimpanzee). If it calls geographical feature, then refers to the gender of most words of this type in language(Mississippi Women's sort of because it's a river). Do not forget that in each such case there are exceptions. Consult reputable dictionaries if any are in doubt.
Video on the topic
Abbreviation(Italian abbreviatura from Latin brevis - short) is a word consisting of the names of the initial letters or sounds of the lexical elements of the original phrase. The name of the term determines the way abbreviations are formed by abbreviation (truncation of stems). When determining sort of such complex abbreviated words need to be “deciphered”, i.e. lead to the original combination.
You will need
- - Dictionary.
Instructions
Determine what type the analyzed one belongs to. Traditionally, there are 3 types: - letter type, i.e. made up of alphabetical names letters of words forming the original phrase (RF, MHT, ORT); - sound type, i.e. formed from words included in the phrase (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN, Moscow Art Theater). Usually, sound abbreviations are formed when there are vowel sounds inside it;- mixed type, i.e. composed partly from the names of the initial letters, partly from sounds (Germany, CSKA).
Determine the original phrase from which the abbreviation is derived. If you have difficulty deciphering, refer to dictionaries or other sources of information.
Determine the gender of the leading word. This grammatical category is assigned to the abbreviation. For example, hard currency is a freely convertible currency. Defined word "currency" of the feminine sort of. This means that SLE is the same sort of.
Remember that the gender of some initial abbreviations has changed over time and the peculiarities of their use in speech. If a compound word has acquired the ability to decline according to the declension of names, then it has acquired the form of a masculine sort of. For example, university - study at a university. Initially, the word belonged to the neuter gender, because university –
Special group among nouns there are so-called words of general gender. Their grammatical originality lies in the fact that the gender of these nouns changes depending on the gender of the person they designate (and therefore the gender of the words that agree with them also changes). For example: “Peter Alekseevich started singing with us - and what a great one!” (Turg.); and: “Before he had time to finish speaking, the singer started playing another song, and the girls pulled each other” (L.T); “As a child I was a big roar” (Veres.); and: “It’s amazing how much a person can change - the grimy, shaggy roar became visible, smart girl" (A. Kozhevn.).
Common words include:
1) proper indeclinable nouns - foreign-language surnames with a vowel (Mauroy, Depardieu, Savary), surnames of foreign origin with a consonant (Sagan, Knipovich), as well as Russians, Slavic surnames on -o (Nesterenko, Durnovo, Zhivago) and on -y/-i (Borzykh, Chutkikh);
2) common indeclinable nouns, the significant majority of which are names of a person as belonging to any nationality (Bantu, Burundi, Herero, Quechua, Mansi, Udege, Khanty, etc.), as well as some names of persons of different thematic groups(counterpart, protégé);
3) unofficial inflected proper names in -a/-z (Valya, Genya, Zhenya, Lera, Pasha, Sasha, etc.);
4) common inflected nouns starting with -а/-я, which in the overwhelming majority characterize a person by inclination, predilection for something, some character trait, etc. and characteristic primarily of an oral-conversational style (a bully, a crook, a mumbler, an ignoramus, a klutz, a crybaby, a drunkard, a blunderer, a cunning one, etc.). They are accompanied by some stylistically neutral words (singer, bookseller, orphan) and book colleague.
Characteristic words such as raven, fox, rag, ulcer should be distinguished from evaluative words of the general kind (such as wicked, rasin, cunning). Their characteristic evaluative meaning arose as a result of metaphorical transfer, and therefore they retain the gender (feminine) of their direct meaning and when used in relation to a male person. For example: “Yesterday in this Variety Show (unprintable words) some viper magician performed a session with chervonets...” (M. Bulg.). A number of words starting with -a are nouns of the masculine (and not general) gender: bouncer, thug, fellow, boss, rake, defrocked, grunt, shirt (as an appendix: shirt-guy), headman, foreman, judge, toastmaster. In some cases, the belonging of words specifically and only to the masculine gender is explained by the nature of the person’s occupation as requiring great physical strength (bouncer, thug) or as something that was once or generally only characteristic of a man (grunt, defrocked, toastmaster), in others - by the tradition of using the characteristic only in relation to a man (kid, boss, rake, shirt), thirdly - by grammatical tradition (elder, foreman, judge).
Note. Names of professions, positions, titles, etc. always remain masculine nouns. to a consonant (doctor, geologist, director, sergeant), which are used to apply to persons of both sexes. When naming a position, profession, etc., occupied by a woman, such words dictate their gender (masculine) to the definitions attached to them (adjectives, participles: “famous geologist”, “practicing physician”). The predicate can have the form not only masculine, but also feminine (“the doctor prescribed treatment,” “the director is outraged by this statement,” “the cashier was right”). Compare, for example: “I understand why my editor rejected the script: it was almost impossible to get money for its implementation” (House of Cinema. 1990. May).
Common nouns ending in -а/-я in modern speech often serve as a characteristic of objects or animals, birds, fish, etc. For example: “On a hot afternoon, kneel down, bend over a little tree, and your nostrils will catch the young and most delicate smell of pine resin” (M. Shol.); “There are buses, cargo taxis, and just taxis, and “private drivers,” i.e., someone’s personal cars, but most of all, business hard-working cars” (Vl.Sol.); “The grapes are beginning to ripen, and the gourmet birds are busily looking for the browned grains” (Seraph.). What is the type of such words-characteristics and definitions for them? Since in such uses, common nouns act as a figurative personifying device, i.e. They liken an inanimate object or animal to a person, to the extent that the grammatical gender of the name of the object (animal) becomes a kind of indicator of “gender”. This means that when used in relation to objects (animals), nouns of the general gender must have definitions in grammatical forms the kind (male or female) to which the names of the objects they characterize belong. For example: “There, in the stuffy wheatgrass, in the wild curly clover, the braids rang, the diligent worker of the day floated over the people” (Fad.); “The air conditioner runs all night. All day long, a tireless worker makes a muffled noise in the corner” (Lit. Gaz. 1981. No. 41); “She is a very big sissy, this machine” (N. Tikh.). If the name of an object belongs to the neuter gender (little tree), and it does not correspond to a real, biological sex, then the definition of a noun of general gender characterizing such an object should be in the feminine form: “The melon tree is a big sissy.” This form is dictated by the morphological “appearance” of a common noun (with the ending -a: sissy).
Rakhmanova L.I., Suzdaltseva V.N. Modern Russian language. - M, 1997.
Common gender
A special place is occupied by words with the ending -a, expressing the assessment attached to persons of the masculine and feminine gender; they change their gender depending on whether in each specific case they refer to a man or a woman, for example: Petya is a great smart girl, Masha is a great smart girl. Such words are not exactly called words of the general gender. These include: the bully, the touchy-feely, the crybaby, the white-handed one, the dirty one, the sissy, the hard worker, the unfortunate, the hasty, the gourmand, the fidget, etc. “Ten years before the events described, Uncle Maxim was known as the most dangerous bully not only in the vicinity of his estate, but even in Kiev at “Contracts”".
The above names of persons by age, family social status with the ending -a: young man, elder, uncle, which always remain masculine words, also evaluative words that do not have the ending -a: darling, bumpkin, lazy person, scoundrel, scoundrel, slobber, by general rule belonging to the masculine gender.
Beloshapkova V.A., Bryzgunova E.A. and others in the textbook “Modern Russian Language” classify as common nouns words that previously belonged to the masculine gender: doctor, doctor, director, secretary, surgeon, agronomist, etc. Moreover, denoting female persons, these nouns are easily combined with feminine forms of the past tense of verbs: the doctor came, the director said, and are also easily changed by the pronoun - the noun she. Thus, words like director, doctor, engineer are no longer masculine words, but have not yet become words of the general gender. After all, they can be combined with adjectives in the masculine form (good, respected, etc.) and cannot be combined with adjectives in the feminine form (in Russian you cannot say “ good doctor” or “dear director” even when referring to female persons). These are kind of just “candidates” for words of a general gender.
The latest changes in the structure of the gender of nouns are related to the living conditions of people - active participation women in manufacturing and public life, their mastery of “male” professions. The language had masculine nouns to denote these professions and positions. A contradiction arose between the phenomena of life and the means of language. However, one can hardly assume that words like director, and even more so phrases like good doctor ( Genitive) or dear secretary (dative case) will happen in the near future.
Paired gender
The three traditional genders do not reflect the properties of all Russian nouns, even those considered in the form nominative case singular. It's about about nouns that name objects that are singular, specific, associated with the idea of counting, but do not have formal means of expressing the uniqueness of plurality: trousers, scales, scissors, glasses, sleigh, abacus, watch, tongs, etc. It is clear that nouns of this type , being in terms of content in ordinary words Russian language cannot be classified as either masculine, neuter, or feminine. These nouns represent a special gender in Russian. Their genus is called paired because they designate objects consisting of two parts (glasses, sleigh, scissors, trousers, gates). Among the nouns of the paired gender there are no ones that denote animate objects. Therefore, the adjectives, participles, verbs in the past tense form that agree with these nouns, or the pronouns that replace these nouns completely coincide with the corresponding consistent word forms associated with the plural forms of inanimate nouns of the masculine, feminine and neuter gender. However, this point of view is purely formal. Taking into account the meaning of paired nouns, it is necessary to recognize that they, as well as the word forms that agree with them, have homonymy of numbers. The selection of paired gender is also dictated by the fact that grammatical categories must cover all vocabulary united by the concept of “part of speech”.
Beloshapkova V.A., Bryzgunova E.A. and others in the textbook “Modern Russian Language” defined a clear gender system. “In the Russian language there is a system of four genders, three of which are divided into animate and inanimate varieties. This system can be presented in the form of seven concordant classes: I - male inanimate (factory), II - male animate (boy), III - female inanimate (factory), IV - female animate (girl), V - average inanimate (field) , VI - medium animate (insect), VII - paired (pants). It can be argued that there are no nouns in the Russian language that could not be classified into one of the seven concordant classes."
But in the Russian language there are nouns that can be simultaneously classified into several concordant classes. These nouns of “crossed” concordant classes (according to A.A. Zaliznyak’s terminology) can be of two types:
1. Nouns denoting substances, materials, having a collective meaning, naming abstract actions, processes, states, games, geographical locations - nouns, lexical meaning which are not related to the expression of the idea of quantity. These nouns, which have a singular form, belong to the feminine or neuter gender, do not have differences in agreement due to animateness and inanimateness, and, therefore, can be considered as belonging simultaneously to classes III and IV (youth) or classes V and VI (students). Words of this group, having a plural form, can be considered as simultaneously belonging to classes I, III, V and VII (spirits).
2. Nouns capable of having two gender meanings - masculine and feminine: ignorant, bully, soy. If given word characterizes a female person (Masha was a terrible ignoramus), the word refers to the feminine gender; if the person is male (Petya was an unimaginable bully), the word refers to the masculine gender. Such nouns are called common nouns.
This class consists of animate nouns with the meaning of person. This term and the concept of general gender were first introduced into grammar by M.V. Lomonosov: “Some names derived from verbs: crybaby, drunkard, prude the essence of the general kind." For the most part, these are words that are qualitative characteristics faces (most often negative): egoza, ignorant, laughing, dirty, chatterbox, greedy, greedy, crooked, crammed, drunkard, goofy, scoundrel etc.; These are expressively colored words.
Words of general gender must have an ending -and I. Such nouns denote both male and female persons, i.e. their gender depends on the specific semantics of the word. All words dependent on these nouns agree in gender according to semantics: our slob is our slob, my braggart is my braggart.
Words of the general gender also include a small group of diminutives: Zhenya, Valya, Shura, Sasha.
A special group consists of surnames like Hugo, Zola, Shevchenko, Belykh, Chavchavadze.
Words like snake, saw hat, fox etc., which in syntactic conditioning are used to name an expressive characteristic. Such words, denoting persons of both male and female gender, do not change their gender, and in speech all words dependent on them agree with them formally, and not in meaning, like words of a general gender. Wed: an orphan is an orphan. But: The Black Pearl has been removed from the field(about the football player Pele) (From newspapers).
Also in the Russian language there are words with unmarked gender meaning. These are words that indicate both male and female gender. For example, in the class of masculine words there is a group of nouns that can denote a person of both male and female gender: teacher, philosopher, professor, engineer, boss, doctor, doctor etc. This group is large and productive; it includes, first of all, nouns with the meaning of a person by profession or occupation.
In a number of cases, such words form correlates (a correlate is a member of a pair of mutually conditioned, correlative linguistic units) of the feminine gender, but in such a pair the masculine word acts as common name persons by specialty, without indicating their gender: teacher - teacher.
The feminine correlate of such nouns can be stylistically neutral ( teacher), but may be stylistically reduced ( boss - colloquial, doctor - vernacular). In speech practice, the gender of such nouns is expressed syntactically: The doctor has come - The doctor has come.
Another group of words with an unmarked meaning are nouns denoting animals, fish, birds, and insects. This includes masculine nouns mosquito, sable, thrush, carp etc.; feminine nouns chicken, pike, cuckoo, fly etc.
(according to Ivanov)
Almost all grammars distinguish the so-called. "common gender". This includes words with inflection-A in im.p., naming persons by characteristic action or property, and having the same system of inflections as masculine and feminine nouns with inflection -A.
Classical morphology, as well as dictionaries, do not distinguish neuter nouns. It is believed that in words like “dormouse”, “bully”, “crybaby”, the masculine and feminine forms are homonymous. Conclusion: in all Russian language textbooks at school, common nouns are highlighted. But in explanatory dictionaries there is no opposition between male-female-average general! Such a separate class of words as common nouns does not exist in reality! This is just a linguistic methodological device. There is no general gender in the dictionary!
(according to Kamynina)
Kamynina divides nouns into classes, which in turn include nouns of the general gender.
Animate nouns of general gender (or bigender substantives). The core of this class is such personal, regularly stylistically marked, evaluative and expressing qualitative words as dirty, slob, neat, stupid, scoundrel, quiet dude, suck-up, weasel, stutterer, fidget, idle talker etc. Words of general gender also include 1) diminutive proper names (Valya, Lera, Sasha, Shura, Sima, Zhenya) male and female persons, 2) foreign indeclinable surnames Joliot-Curie, Rossini, Verdi, Dumas, Rabelais, Hugo, Ukrainian surnames - about Shevchenko, surnames like Long, Twisted, 3) indeclinable personal nouns like counterpart, protégé, Sami.
Words of general gender are specifically characterized by three obligatory properties.
Firstly, they must denote male and female persons, secondly, in phrases and sentences they must be combined with consistent forms of masculine and feminine gender, thirdly, without agreement, their gender is not defined as either masculine or feminine.
Words that exhibit some of the listed characteristics do not belong to the general gender. For example, in the sentence Someone wrote to him from Moscow that a famous person would soon enter into legal marriage with a young and beautiful girl(Pushkin) word individual denotes a man, but it cannot be attributed to the general gender, since it has a fixed gender, and an adjective in the masculine form is not attached to it. Nouns like doctor, professor, historian, expert, fighter, calling people by profession or some quality. Although such nouns are similar to words of the general gender in meaning and in agreement between the forms of the predicate (The doctor saw 1 patients from two o'clock to seven), but they do not completely coincide with them. First, the words doctor, professor, historian and others have a gender outside (?!) of use. Secondly, feminine adjectival forms are not combined with them in the structure of the phrase: we do not say: *I’m going to see my friend Professor 1 *to see a new doctor for a consultation.
In the same way, animate and inanimate concrete nouns used in evaluative-predicative, regularly negative meanings are not words of a general gender: donkey, bear, camel, fox, pig, crow, snake, saw, knife, hat.
According to the observation of researchers, words of general gender are heterogeneous according to bigender. They are divided into three groups. IN first the group includes genetically feminine words, for example, smart girl. When combined with a masculine adjective, such lexemes are called male persons, and in combination with feminine adjectives “remain neutral to the gender of the referent” (G. I. Panova): He is a big smart guy (Yuna is a big smart guy). He is a great smart guy. She is very smart although they are primarily used in the feminine sense.
Second the group consists of words of a general gender, genetically ascending to the masculine gender: headman, judge, sang, caroused. They are often used in the masculine sense. The masculine form of the adjective with them indicates a male person, and the feminine form indicates a female person (our 1 is our headman).
On the third the group includes nouns, as defined by G.I. Panova, “with an equal degree of manifestation of feminine and masculine properties” 37 . These include, first of all, diminutive proper names and indeclinable surnames. The distinction between the sexes of these nouns is also achieved using compatible word forms: our Sasha said, our Sasha said;
From the system of gender relations of nouns, a rather numerous, diverse and very expressive group of words of a common (or rather: both, masculine and feminine) gender, ending in the nominative case with - A(-I) and meaning not only female but also male persons.
Some, although very few, of the nouns that have grammatical features of the feminine gender directly indicate male persons (for example: nobleman, governor, elder and some others). But the category of such words is - A, belonging only to the masculine gender, is archaic and unproductive. The vast majority of such words are of a general gender. Modern scientific grammar, following A. Kh. Vostokov and A. A. Shakhmatov, sees in masculine words - A one of the most essential grammatical features of the category of person, separated from the general meaning of objectivity (perhaps under the influence of pronouns). The category of person is contrasted with the category of non-person.
Question about masculine words in - A is not limited to a simple indication of their belonging to the category of person. Of the recent Russian linguists, Prof. A. M. Peshkovsky. "Nouns like governor, judge,” he wrote, “we consider it a special syncretic generic category... we believe that the combination female endings with the designation of male persons at the base and with the male agreement of the adjective, there is a special fact of speech consciousness that distinguishes these contradictory elements and in a certain way synthesizes them, and in some cases even intentionally, in the order of a new formation that combines them. In other words, we see here something like a “masculinized feminine” or, more accurately, a “feminized masculine” (from masculinus- "male" and femininus- “female”) with a special combination of meanings..."
But prof. A. M. Peshkovsky did not have time to express his point of view. He even lost sight of the fact that this “syncretistic generic category” has long attracted the attention of grammarians. There have been attempts to approach it from different angles and illuminate its meaning in the Russian literary language, as well as its genesis. Vostokov already pointed out that words of the general gender in - A"means the qualities of people"
K. S. Aksakov in his “Experience of Russian Grammar” tried to illuminate the question of the semantic foundations of the category of general (masculine-feminine) gender from the other side: “Taken by themselves, these names are of the feminine gender; they expressed the understanding of the matter in the feminine form words. After, this understanding (since such names express: either a more or less abstract understanding, and not the name of an object, or an object taken in a metaphorical sense) [our discharge. - IN.IN.] was actually transferred to male persons, - in other words, used in the feminine sense together, for female persons, - and in others - only in the male ( judge)" .
Thus, K. S. Aksakov drew attention to two circumstances:
1) the overwhelming majority of words of the general gender start with - A is the result of a metaphorical or generally figurative application of abstract or specific words of the feminine gender to persons. These are originally feminine words;
2) they are not actually names of persons, but their characteristics, their nicknames (with a few exceptions).
F. I. Buslaev and especially A. A. Potebnya delved deeper into the reasons for the transition of concrete, abstract and collective concepts (like servant, service, simplicity, antiquity, man etc.) into the face category. They lifted the curtain on the history of the development of words of a general gender in - A. They also identified techniques and principles of metonymic and metaphorical application of feminine words to male persons, for example: head, orphan, spinning top etc. Cf.: “He is a woman. A pitiful woman, however; a woman should not love him at all” (Dostoevsky, “Demons”); “But it will all end with this old woman Pyotr Nikolaevich and his sister asking him for an apology” (Chekhov, “The Seagull”).
Combination of masculine and feminine genders in the general part of the designations of persons on - A justified by their sharp expressiveness. In the category of general gender, emotionally charged words predominate, penetrating into the literary language from the living oral speech and sometimes bearing a strong imprint of a familiar and even vulgar style. Number of Slavicisms among personal words on - A insignificant. Most of the archaisms and Slavicisms are masculine ( voivode, nobleman, judge, vita, elder, lord, forerunner, youth). The category of general gender includes several living types of word formation.
In modern literary language, the category of general gender is generally unproductive. Feminine words ending in a soft consonant with a zero ending in the nominative case (like scum, rubbish, trash, need, evil spirits etc.) do not go into the category of general gender (cf. Vulg.-Bran. bastard; Wed use that arose in the 20s - 30s of the 19th century. words mediocrity, mediocrity, celebrity, innocence and some others; Wed nonentity). In the category of general gender, words starting with - A with bright expressive colors. Most of them belong to colloquial language or familiar vernacular. In this environment, the exfoliation of the old church-bookish, high vocabulary is subject to a contemptuous and ironic revaluation (cf. masculine words in - A:arrogantnobleman; Wed the possibility of only ironic application to modern phenomena words like voivode, wine drinker, vitija and so on.). Or Slavicisms are preserved as official terms (for example: judge, murderer, matricide and so on.). The bright expressive coloring characteristic of almost all words of the general gender is emphasized by the discrepancy between their structure and meaning. This entire complex range of semantic shades is built on the basis of the class of feminine words. The application of feminine words to men gives rise to a peculiar expressive connotation of these words. This phenomenon vividly reflects the social status of a woman and her attitude towards the female sex 24 . Hyphenation of words with a formal sign of the feminine gender (with a morpheme - A) on male faces has become a colorful means of linguistic representation. But this, of course, does not mean that all words of the general gender are - A pass through the feminine class without fail. Thus, the category of gender has in the Russian language system not only direct, but also figurative, expressive meanings (cf. fixing some words to - A only for the masculine gender, for example young fellow, rake and others like that; Wed man). All these linguistic facts prove the greater grammatical weight of the feminine gender comparatively and correlatively with the masculine gender (cf. loiterer Gogol's " Dead souls", formed from loiterer; Wed beggar). These facts also contain visual evidence of the living content of the category of gender. The category of gender of nouns (as well as the category of number and case) in its meaning differs sharply from the category of gender of adjectives and even the past tense of a verb (form in - l), despite “a certain amount of independence in the gender of the verb. It is not only a grammatical, but also a lexical support for the meaning of objectivity.
