The problem of the category of a gender.

The fact is, the category of gender in English differs from the category of gender in many other languages, for example, in Russian, in French or in German. The category of gender linguistically may be either meaningful (or, natural), rendering the actual sex-based features of the referents, or formal (arbitrary).

The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. These serve as specific gender classifiers of nouns, being potentially reflected on each entry of the noun in speech.

The category of gender is strictly oppositional. It is formed by two oppositions related to each other on a hierarchical basis.

One opposition functions in the whole set of nouns, dividing them into person (human) nouns and non-person (non-human) nouns. The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only, dividing them into masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Thus, the first, general opposition can be referred to as the upper opposition in the category of gender, while the second, partial opposition can be referred to as the lower opposition in this category.

As a result of the double oppositional correlation, a specific system of three genders arises, which is somewhat misleadingly represented by the traditional terminology: the neuter (i.e. non-person) gender, the masculine (i.e. masculine person) gender, the feminine (i.e. feminine person) gender.

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. Here belong such nouns as tree, mountain, love, etc.; cat, swallow, ant, etc.; society, crowd, association, etc.; bull and cow, cock and hen, horse and mare, etc.

The strong member of the lower opposition is the feminine subclass of person nouns, its sememic mark being "female sex". Here belong such nouns as woman, girl, mother, bride, etc. The masculine subclass of person nouns comprising such words as man, boy, father, bridegroom, etc. makes up the weak member of the opposition.

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

As we see, the category of gender in English is inherently semantic, i.e. meaningful in so far as it reflects the actual features of the named objects. But the semantic nature of the category does not in the least make it into "non-grammatical", which follows from the whole content of what has been said in the present work.

2. The main functions of the definite/indefinite articles.

The main semantic function of the article is that of correlation of a no­tion with the world described in a text (or with the situation of communica­tion). Obviously the speaker’s choice of the article is situation-dependent.

The definite article individualizes or identifies the referent of the noun: the use of the definite article shows that the object referred to is known to the hearer and is taken in its concrete, individual quality. This observation is confirmed by a substitution test: the definite article may be replaced by a demon­strative determiner this, that, these, those without any change in the general implication of the construction.

The definite article is used with nouns that are modified by attributive constructions.

But what happened to the people I knew in college? Or in high school? Amy Darrow – the girl who had her engagement party the night I met Joe, remember? (Tyler)

The definite article may also be used with the noun whose referent is mentioned for the first time but is so much common for a given situation that it does not require any special introduction: Mary and Bob sat in silence, the engine still running while Bob banged impatiently with one hand on the steering-wheel. (King)

The definite noun is used with nouns that denote unique referents: the earth, the sun, the moon, the East, the world, the universe.

In contrast to the identifying meaning of the definite article, the indefinite article is associated with a classifying meaning. The indefinite article may point out a concrete referent but in doing so it does not single out this referent among similar referents of the class and it does not identify the ref­erent as already known. As a result, it is used to introduce a new element in the sentence, Since a new element is always the most prominent and attracts attention, a noun with the indefinite article frequently becomes the center of the utterance and as such is marked by strong stress: Then Binstock arrived with the flowers, and a woman phoned to arrange an office cocktail party, and the plasterer showed up to mend the hole in the dining-room ceiling.

The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as referring the object denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words, the indefinite article may express a classifying generalization of the nounal referent.

The properties of the English articles we can consider in four successive stages, beginning with their semantic evaluation as such, then adding to the obtained data a situational estimation of their uses, thereafter analysing their categorial features in the light of the oppositional theory, and finally concluding the investigation by a paradigmatic generalisation.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1901