(according to Ivanov)

Almost all grammars distinguish the so-called. "common gender". This includes words with inflection.-but in im.p., calling persons according to a characteristic action or property, and having the same system of inflections as masculine and feminine nouns with inflection -but.

Classical morphology, as well as dictionaries, do not distinguish neuter nouns. It is believed that for words like "sleepyhead", "bully", "crybaby", masculine and feminine forms are homonymous. Conclusion: in all textbooks of the Russian language at school, nouns of the general gender are highlighted. But in explanatory dictionaries no opposition male-female-average general - no! There is no such separate class of words as general nouns in reality! This is just a linguistic and methodological device. There is no common gender in the dictionary!

(across Kamynina)

Kamynina divides nouns into classes, which in turn include general nouns.

Animated general nouns (or two-gendered substantives). The core of this class is such personal, regularistically marked, evaluative and qualitative words as dirty, slob, clean, stupid, rascal, quiet dude, sneak, weasel, stutter, fidget, chatterbox etc. The words of the general gender also include 1) proper diminutive names (Valya, Lera, Sasha, Shura, Sima, Zhenya) persons of males and females, 2) foreign non-declining surnames Joliot-Curie, Rossini, Verdi, Dumas, Rabelais, Hugo, Ukrainian surnames on -about Shevchenko, surnames like Dolgikh, Kruchenykh, 3) non-declining personal nouns like vis-a-vis, protege, Sami.

Generic words are specifically characterized by three essential properties.

Firstly, they should designate male and female persons, secondly, in a phrase and a sentence, they should be combined with compatible forms of masculine and feminine gender, and thirdly, without agreement, their gender is not defined either as masculine or as feminine.

The general gender does not include words in which some of the listed characteristics are found. For example, in the sentence Someone wrote to him from Moscow that a famous person should soon enter into a legal marriage with a young and beautiful girl.(Pushkin) word individual denotes a man, but he cannot be attributed to the general gender, since he has a fixed gender, and an adjective in the masculine form is not attached to it. Should not be attributed to the general gender and nouns of the type 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 on the forms of the predicate (The doctor took 1 received patients from two o'clock to seven), but do not completely coincide with them. First, the words doctor, professor, historian and others have a genus outside (?!) use. Secondly, adjective forms of the feminine gender are not combined with them in the structure of the phrase: we do not say: * I go to a friend professor 1 * to a new doctor for a consultation.

In the same way, animate and inanimate concrete nouns used in evaluative-predicative, regularly negative meanings are not general words: donkey, bear, camel, fox, pig, crow, snake, saw, knife, hat.

According to the observation of researchers, words of the general genus are heterogeneous according to the two-genus character. They are divided into three groups... IN the first the group includes words of genetically feminine gender, for example, clever. Combined with a masculine adjective, such lexemes are called masculine persons, and in combination with feminine adjectives "remain gender-neutral to the referent's persons" (GI Panova): He's a big smart guy (Yuna is a big smart guy). He is a very clever girl. She is a very smart girl although they are primarily used in the sense of the feminine gender.

The second the group is made up of words of the general gender, genetically derived from the masculine gender: the headman, the judge, sang, boozed. They are often used in the masculine sense. The masculine form of the adjective in them indicates a male person, and the feminine form indicates a female person. (our 1 our headman).

In the third the group includes nouns, according to GI Panova, “with an equal degree of manifestation of the properties of the feminine and masculine gender” 37. These include, first of all, proper diminutive names and non-declining surnames. Gender delineation of these nouns is also achieved using consistent word forms: our Sasha said, our Sasha said;

From the system of generic relations of nouns, a rather numerous, varied and very expressive group of words of a common (or rather, both, masculine and feminine) gender, ending in the nominative case in - but(-I) and meaning persons not only female, but also male.

Some, though very few, of the nouns that have grammatical features of the feminine gender directly indicate masculine persons (for example: nobleman, voivode, headman and some others). But the category of such words is - but, belonging only to the masculine gender, is archaic and unproductive. The overwhelming majority of these words are general. Modern scientific grammar, following A. Kh. Vostokov and A. A. Shakhmatov, sees masculine words in - but one of the most essential grammatical features of the category of a person, which stood out from the general meaning of objectivity (perhaps under the influence of pronouns). The face category is contrasted with the non-person category.

The question of masculine words in - but is not limited to a simple indication of their belonging to the category of a person. Of recent Russian linguists, prof. A. M. Peshkovsky. "Nouns like voivode, judge, - he wrote, - we consider a special syncretic generic category ... we believe that the combination of female endings with the designation of males at the base and with masculine agreement of the adjective is a special fact of speech consciousness that distinguishes these contradictory elements and synthesizes them in a known way, and in some cases, even intentionally, in the order of a neoplasm that combines them. In other words, we see here something like a "masculinized feminine gender" or, rather, 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 state his point of view. He even lost sight of the fact that this "syncretic generic category" had long attracted the attention of grammarians. There were attempts to approach it from different sides and highlight its meaning in the Russian literary language, as well as its genesis. Already Vostokov indicated that the words of the general gender on - but"signify the qualities of men"

KS Aksakov in his "Experience of Russian Grammar" tried to illuminate the issue of the semantic foundations of the category of the general (masculine-feminine) gender from the other side: "Taken by themselves, these names are feminine; After, understanding is (since in such names it is expressed: either a more or less abstract understanding, and not the name of an object, or an object taken in a metaphorical sense) [our relaxation - IN.IN.] was actually transferred to males, - in other words they are used in the feminine sense together, for females, and in others - only in masculine ( referee)" .

Thus, K. S. Aksakov drew attention to two circumstances:

1) the overwhelming majority of words of the general gender on - but represents the result of a metaphorical or generally figurative application of abstract or specific feminine words to persons. Initially, these are feminine words;

2) they are actually not 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, old man, man etc.) into the category of a person. They lifted the curtain over the history of the development of words of the general gender on - but... They also identified the techniques and principles of the metonymic and metaphorical application of feminine words to males, for example: head, orphan, whirligig etc. Compare: "He is a woman. A pitiful woman, however; a woman shouldn't love him at all" (Dostoevsky, "The Demons"); "But everything will end with this old woman Pyotr Nikolaevich and his sister asking him for an apology" (Chekhov, "The Seagull").

The combination of masculine and feminine gender in the general part of the designations of persons on - but justified by their sharp expressiveness. In the category of the general gender, emotionally colored words prevail, which penetrated into the literary language from the living oral speech and sometimes bearing a sharp imprint of a familiar and even vulgar style. The number of Slavisms among personal words by - but insignificantly. Most of the archaisms and Slavisms are masculine ( voivode, nobleman, judge, vitya, elder, lord, forerunner, youth). Several living types of word formation belong to the category of the general genus.

In modern literary language, the category of the general genus is generally unproductive. Feminine words to a soft consonant with a null nominative ending (like scum, rubbish, rags, gol, evil etc.) do not fall into the category of the general gender (cf. Vulg.-bran. bastard; Wed the use of arisen in the 20s - 30s of the XIX century. words mediocrity, mediocrity, celebrity, innocence and some others; Wed insignificance). In the category of the general gender, words dominate - but with a bright expressive color. Most of them belong to the spoken language or familiar vernacular. In this environment, the exfoliation of the old church-book, high vocabulary is subjected to a contemptuous and ironic reappraisal (cf. the masculine words in - but:arrogantnobleman; Wed the possibility of only ironic application to modern phenomena of words such as voivode, wine drinker, vitya etc.). Or, Slavicisms are retained as official terms (for example: judge, murderer, matricide etc.). The bright expressive coloring inherent in almost all general words is emphasized by the discrepancy between their structure and meaning. All this complex range of semantic shades is erected on the basis of the class of words of the feminine gender. The use of feminine words to men gives rise to a kind of expressive coloring of these words. This phenomenon reflects a surplus of the social position of women, their attitude to the female sex 24. Word hyphenation with a formal feminine sign (with a morpheme - but) on males has become a colorful means of linguistic depiction. But this, of course, does not mean that all words of the general gender are on - but go through the feminine class without fail. Thus, the category of gender in the Russian language system has not only direct, but also figurative, expressive meanings (cf. the fixation of some words in - but only for the masculine gender, for example good boy, rake and others like that; Wed Man). All these linguistic facts prove the greater grammatical weight of the feminine gender relative to and relative to the masculine gender (cf. loitering in Gogol's " Dead souls"formed from loiter; Wed beggar). In these facts there is also a clear proof of the living content of the category of the genus. The gender category of nouns (as well as the category of number and case) in its meaning differs sharply from the category of the gender of adjectives and even the past tense of the verb (form in - l), despite a certain degree of independence in the gender of the verb. It is not only grammatical, but also lexical support for the meaning of objectivity.

Education

Examples of general nouns. What are generic nouns?

11 january 2018

The noun is one of the most frequently used parts of speech. Moreover, such words have a gender, of which there are three in Russian: male (dog, house, bow, father), female (goat, cat, room, pear) or middle (village, sky, jam, distance). The gender category is one of the permanent features of this part of speech. However, there are a number of exceptions. We invite you to get acquainted with examples of general nouns.

What is genus

• This is a constant sign. So, if the number and case can change (for example, the words "cat" - singular and "cats" - plural), then the gender always remains the same. No matter how many cats we are talking about, this word is always feminine.
• In the plural for nouns, this category is not expressed. In this case, if a definition is necessary, the word should be put in unit. h.
• Words that are not used in the singular (scissors, stretchers) have no gender.

How to determine

The easiest way to define gender is with pronoun substitution. This is taught in school. For example:

• Table, house, wardrobe, chair - it's mine.
• The dog, the door, the skirt, the geranium - she's mine.
• Butter, milk, plant, composition - it's mine.

Sometimes, over time, a word can change its genus, for example, the word "swan" was previously feminine, but now it is masculine.

Related Videos

Common gender

Let's get acquainted with examples of general nouns and consider what they are. There are a number of words that can be used in relation to a creature of either gender:

• Slut.
• Clutter.
• Crybaby.
• Yabed.
• Quiet.
• Nerd.

From the context it becomes clear what kind of speech we are talking about. For example:

• Tanya was a terrible crybaby and always solved the problem with tears.
• Yegor was a terrible crybaby and always solved the problem with tears.

The word "crybaby" is an example of a general noun.

Examples of

There are a lot of words that fit into the category of "general nouns". Here are some examples of phrases:

• Poor dog - poor Olga.
• Know-it-all Maxim - know-it-all Katerina.
• Suck (boy, girl).
• Gryaznulya (Vanya, Anya).
• Glutton (cat, dog).

These are general words. Most often they have a pronounced emotional coloring, express the speaker's attitude to the subject described by him.

Here are examples of sentences with general nouns:

• Little son constantly asked many questions.
• Why Julia often puzzled her parents.
• Stupid Kirill so often fell into ridiculous situations that they were tired of laughing at him.
• This man went down in history as a regicide.

It can be seen from the examples that in their form such words resemble feminine nouns, this is indicated by the endings -a / i, however, when combining, it is necessary to take into account what kind of word they depend on.

First example

The hard worker Petrov received the award. The generic word "hard worker" characterizes a man, therefore it also refers to noun. male. The agreed definition should be chosen as appropriate: "conscientious, diligent hard worker."

Another example

Self-taught Aksenova has achieved significant success in scientific activities... Here "self-taught" describes a woman, so the word should be attributed to the feminine gender, the agreed definition would be: "talented, intelligent, hard-working self-taught."

Examples from texts

Here are examples of general nouns from the work of Krylov "The Elephant and the Pug":

So crowds of onlookers followed the Elephant.

I can get into big bullies.

There are two common words here - "onlooker", "bully"; both first declension, plural.

In the fable "The Cat and the Cook" there is another example of a common noun:

Oh, you glutton! ah villain! -

Here the cook reproaches Vaska.

The word "glutton" is used here in a general way.

Another example is from the fable "The Mirror and the Monkey":

Of my gossips, there are five or six such antics.

And again we have an example of a noun of a general gender.

How to avoid mistakes

Often, without context, it becomes difficult to identify which gender a general noun belongs to. For instance:

• Well, you are an upstart!
• You are a loner, you do not know how to work in a team.

Words mean a qualitative characteristic of a person, but do not give an indication of his gender. If we supplement the examples with supporting words, the meaning will become clear:

• Well, you are an upstart, Misha!
• Katya, you are a loner, you do not know how to work in a team.

Thanks to the supporting words, we understand that in the first example the word "upstart" refers to a boy, therefore it is a masculine noun, and in the second - to a girl, because its gender is feminine.

Words of the general gender should be attributed to the masculine gender in the case when they denote a male person, or to the feminine gender when they denote a female person.

A common mistake

Often, schoolchildren can mistaken for general nouns lexical units that denote professions:

• doctor;
• Professor;
• geologist;
• archaeologist;
• librarian;
• paleontologist;
• surgeon.

They can refer to both men and women, but their gender is always masculine: Dr. Ivanova, surgeon Smirnova. If it is necessary to agree on an adjective with them, one should remember that they are combined with the masculine form: the talented surgeon Smirnova. The combination of "talented surgeon Smirnov" would be a mistake.

Most of this vocabulary does not have a parallel feminine form, but sometimes in colloquial speech, phrases like "doctor Ivanov" "librarian Savinova", which are unacceptable in literary speech, can slip through.

There are also feminine words in the Russian language, meaning the names of persons by profession: typist, ballerina. If it is necessary to designate a male person, descriptive turns come to the rescue: a ballet dancer.

Proper names

Examples of general nouns include proper names- non-declining surnames of both Russian and foreign origin: Sidorenko, Vidnykh, Grodas.

Diminutive forms also have a common genus, which can refer to people of both sexes: Sasha, Shurochka, as well as abbreviated forms of names: Valya, Sasha.

Generic noun groups

Based on the above material, three groups of names of the general genus can be distinguished:

• Common nouns that resemble feminine words in their form, as indicated by the ending -a / i: orphan, clumsy, rascal, sweet tooth. Most often, they have a bright emotional color.
• Diminutive proper names referring to both boys and girls: Sanya, Valya, Zhenya.
• Unshackable surnames: Savchenko, Dumas, Sedykh.

It is important to use general nouns correctly in speech, but most often native speakers understand the meaning of the statement thanks to the supporting words or based on the general meaning of the dialogue.

Lesson number ________

Topic: " General nouns "

The purpose of the lesson: to acquaint students with the concept of "common gender" in nouns.

Tasks:subject: develop the ability to find general nouns in a sentence, text; begin to form the ability to use general nouns in speech;

metasubject : develop coherent speech, logical thinking, to promote the development of interest in learning new things.

personal : to create an atmosphere conducive to the upbringing of the individual in terms of social partnership (student - student, student - teacher, student - collective), foster love for the Russian language.

Lesson type: a lesson in the discovery of new knowledge.

During the classes

Teacher activity

Students' activities

Organizational stage.

Checking the readiness of the class for the lesson. Finding out the absent reasons. Record in the journal and notebooks of reception and transmission.

Welcome.

The class attendants answer.

Checking d / z.

Checking for homework

Show works.

Spelling warm-up

Glue, burn, school, station, great, babysitter, transitory success, land, take the moon, arrive in the city, stay in the city, gallop, unpleasant, enormous, beautiful.

Explain the choice of prefix.

The task: write down all the different nouns from memory.

Two are working at the blackboard.

Language warm-up.

The task: write sentences, graphically mark grammatical basis, determine the gender of a noun.

Motivation UD.

Questions:

1. What are the permanent morphological features of the noun.

2. So, gender is one of the permanent features of a noun, ie. one that is given once and for all.

3. Determine what kind of given nouns ( quiet, fidget).

Nouns can be common or proper, animate or inanimate, belongs to one of the 3 genders: feminine, masculine, neuter.

Pupils express their opinion: some believe that it is masculine, others - feminine ( the emergence of a problem situation).

The names appear next to the words “ Lena - quiet "," Vasya - fidget "

4. Tell me, now we can determine the gender of the nouns "quiet" and "fidget" (presentation of the second fact)

Students define

quiet - feminine

fidget - masculine

The teacher swaps proper names and it turns out

“Lena - fidget "," Vasya - quiet "

5. Can I say so?

6. What interesting things have you noticed? (prompting to realize the contradiction)

7. But gender is a constant morphological feature of nouns.

What question arises after considering these examples?

What problem should we solve in today's lesson? (prompting to formulate a problem)

YES!

These nouns can be either masculine or feminine.

Why are some nouns both masculine and feminine? What are their names? (educational problem as a question

Topic announcement. Setting goals, objectives. Explanation of the lesson plan.

Announces the topic, goal, lesson objectives, plan. Writing on the board and in the class journal.

Making a notebook. Epigraph design.

Work on the topic.

The definition of "common genus" is formulated.

In Russian, there are nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the singular, which refer to the masculine gender, if they denote males, and to the feminine gender, if they denote females.

Such nouns are called general nouns.

Working with the tutorial §32, p. 124

Study of the textbook material (collective work).

Assignment: write down words in two columns:

1 column- general nouns that refer to unattractive traits of a person

2 column- other general nouns

Option 1: bully, glutton, bungler, sucker, sneak, crybaby, roar, bully, gaping, nit-picking, bore, dirty, smartass.

Option 2: sweet, clean, sweet tooth, quiet, smart, fidget, poor thing.

Which group is bigger?

Try to guess in what style of speech the words of this group are most often used.

Determine what kind of activity we have to move to now? One ancient Greek philosopher once remarked: "Health is what people most strive to preserve and least of all cherish."

There are more words in the first column. Most likely it is a conversational style, less often an artistic one.

Physical education(Do a warm-up while reading a poem)

Cloud

Draw a cloud with your eyes on the ceiling of the classroom and trace the path of the snowflake to the ground.

Let's carry out, friends, now an exercise for the eyes. They looked to the right, to the left, the eyes all cheered up. From bottom to top and top to bottom. You, lens, do not be angry, Look at the ceiling, find a corner there. We look diagonally to make our muscles stronger. We will not take a compass, we will write a circle with our eyes. Now let's write the words. Whose letters will be higher? "Dad", "mom", "house", "grass" - we can see it outside the window. Look out the window. What do you see there in the distance? And now on the tip of the nose. Repeat this eight times - It will be better to see the eye. Eyes thank us, They tell us all to blink. We blink our eyes smoothly, Then we close our eyes so that there is more strength, We put our palms to them.

Securing the material.

Formation of skills in the use of general nouns in speech.

The chalkboard contains suggestions:

Together with the teacher, they develop an algorithm for reconciling common nouns with adjectives and pronouns.

1. My brother Vitya is a real ... bully.

1.Let's find general nouns in the sentence.

2. Sister Olya - everyone knows ... quiet.

2. Let us define it to a person of male or female sex.

3. This ... little ... fidget could not sit still for a minute.

3. If masculine, then the noun of the general gender and the endings of the adjective and pronoun will correspond to the masculine gender.

Assignment: add the endings of adjectives and pronouns.

4. If the gender is feminine, then both the general noun and the adjective will be feminine.

For example: 1) Bully is a general noun, refers to the noun Vitya.

2) Vitya - brother, boy, denotes a male person.

3) Bully - masculine, which means "My brother Vitya is a real bully."

Creative task ... Write an essay - a miniature "The character of my friend" with the use of general nouns according to the plan:

1 offer - positive features character;

2 sentence - negative character traits;

3 sentence - your attitude.

Write an essay for 5 minutes and then read it aloud.

Sample: My friend Tanya is a very smart girl, clean and sweet. Sometimes she is a terrible bully and sneak. But I love her.

Control. 244, p. 125

Reflection.

What was the topic of the lesson? What new have you learned? What have you learned?

Generic nouns.

Generic nouns can be feminine if they denote females and can be masculine if they denote males.

We learned to use them in speech and correctly coordinate with adjectives, pronouns, verbs in the past tense.

Homework... Assessment.

§32, exercise. 242.

Diary entry.

At the end of the lesson, the game "Reverse":

And it’s time for you and me

Play the opposite game.

I will say the word "high", and you will answer: "low"

I will say the word "far", and you will answer: "close"

I will tell you the word "coward", you will answer: "brave"

Now I will say "the beginning". Well, answer: "the end!"

The noun is one of the most frequently used parts of speech. Moreover, such words have a gender, of which there are three in Russian: male (dog, house, bow, father), female (goat, cat, room, pear) or middle (village, sky, jam, distance). The gender category is one of the permanent features of this part of speech. However, there are a number of exceptions. We invite you to get acquainted with examples of general nouns.

What is genus

• This is a constant sign. So, if the number and case can change (for example, the words "cat" - singular and "cats" - plural), then the gender always remains the same. No matter how many cats we are talking about, this word is always feminine.
• In the plural for nouns, this category is not expressed. In this case, if a definition is necessary, the word should be put in unit. h.
• Words that are not used in the singular (scissors, stretchers) have no gender.

How to determine

The easiest way to define gender is with pronoun substitution. This is taught in school. For example:

• Table, house, wardrobe, chair - it's mine.
• The dog, the door, the skirt, the geranium - she's mine.
• Butter, milk, plant, composition - it's mine.

Sometimes, over time, a word can change its genus, for example, the word "swan" was previously feminine, but now it is masculine.

Common gender

Let's get acquainted with examples of general nouns and consider what they are. There are a number of words that can be used in relation to a creature of either gender:

• Slut.
• Clutter.
• Crybaby.
• Yabed.
• Quiet.
• Nerd.

From the context it becomes clear what kind of speech we are talking about. For example:

• Tanya was a terrible crybaby and always solved the problem with tears.
• Yegor was a terrible crybaby and always solved the problem with tears.

The word "crybaby" is an example of a general noun.

Examples of

There are a lot of words that fit into the category of "general nouns". Here are some examples of phrases:

• Poor dog - poor Olga.
• Know-it-all Maxim - know-it-all Katerina.
• Suck (boy, girl).
• Gryaznulya (Vanya, Anya).
• Glutton (cat, dog).

These are general words. Most often they have a pronounced emotional coloring, express the speaker's attitude to the subject described by him.

Here are examples of sentences with general nouns:

• Little son constantly asked many questions.
• Why Julia often puzzled her parents.
• Stupid Kirill so often fell into ridiculous situations that they were tired of laughing at him.
• This man went down in history as a regicide.

It can be seen from the examples that in their form such words resemble feminine nouns, this is indicated by the endings -a / i, however, when combining, it is necessary to take into account what kind of word they depend on.

First example

The hard worker Petrov received the award. The generic word "hard worker" characterizes a man, therefore it also refers to noun. male. The agreed definition should be chosen as appropriate: "conscientious, diligent hard worker."

Another example

Self-taught Aksenova has achieved significant success in scientific activities. Here "self-taught" describes a woman, so the word should be attributed to the feminine gender, the agreed definition would be: "talented, intelligent, hard-working self-taught."

Examples from texts

Here are examples of general nouns from the work of Krylov "The Elephant and the Pug":

So crowds of onlookers followed the Elephant.

I can get into big bullies.

There are two common words here - "onlooker", "bully"; both first declension, plural.

In the fable "The Cat and the Cook" there is another example of a common noun:

Oh, you glutton! ah villain! -

Here the cook reproaches Vaska.

The word "glutton" is used here in a general way.

Another example is from the fable "The Mirror and the Monkey":

Of my gossips, there are five or six such antics.

And again we have an example of a noun of a general gender.

How to avoid mistakes

Often, without context, it becomes difficult to identify which gender a general noun belongs to. For instance:

• Well, you are an upstart!
• You are a loner, you do not know how to work in a team.

Words mean a qualitative characteristic of a person, but do not give an indication of his gender. If we supplement the examples with supporting words, the meaning will become clear:

• Well, you are an upstart, Misha!
• Katya, you are a loner, you do not know how to work in a team.

Thanks to the supporting words, we understand that in the first example the word "upstart" refers to a boy, therefore it is a masculine noun, and in the second - to a girl, because its gender is feminine.

Words of the general gender should be attributed to the masculine gender in the case when they denote a male person, or to the feminine gender when they denote a female person.

A common mistake

Often, schoolchildren can mistake lexical units that denote professions for general nouns:

• doctor;
• Professor;
• geologist;
• archaeologist;
• librarian;
• paleontologist;
• surgeon.

They can refer to both men and women, but their gender is always masculine: Dr. Ivanova, surgeon Smirnova. If it is necessary to agree on an adjective with them, one should remember that they are combined with the masculine form: the talented surgeon Smirnova. The combination of "talented surgeon Smirnov" would be a mistake.

Most of this vocabulary does not have a parallel feminine form, but sometimes in colloquial speech, phrases like "doctor Ivanov" "librarian Savinova", which are unacceptable in literary speech, can slip through.

There are also feminine words in the Russian language, meaning the names of persons by profession: typist, ballerina. If it is necessary to designate a male person, descriptive turns come to the rescue: a ballet dancer.

Proper names

As examples of nouns of a general gender, one can also cite proper names - the indelible surnames of both Russian and foreign origin: Sidorenko, Vidnykh, Grodas.

Diminutive forms also have a common genus, which can refer to people of both sexes: Sasha, Shurochka, as well as abbreviated forms of names: Valya, Sasha.

Generic noun groups

Based on the above material, three groups of names of the general genus can be distinguished:

• Common nouns that resemble feminine words in their form, as indicated by the ending -a / i: orphan, clumsy, rascal, sweet tooth. Most often, they have a bright emotional color.
• Diminutive proper names referring to both boys and girls: Sanya, Valya, Zhenya.
• Unshackable surnames: Savchenko, Dumas, Sedykh.

It is important to use general nouns correctly in speech, but most often native speakers understand the meaning of the statement thanks to the supporting words or based on the general meaning of the dialogue.

Common gender

A special place is occupied by words with the ending -а, expressing the assessment applied to persons of the masculine and feminine gender; they change their gender depending on whether they refer to a man or a woman in each particular case, for example: Petya is a very clever girl, Masha is a very clever girl. Such words are not quite accurately called general words. These include: bully, touchy, crybaby, white-handed, dirty, sissy, hard worker, unfortunate, hurry, gourmet, fidget, etc. “Ten years before the events described, Uncle Maxim was known for the most dangerous bully not only in the vicinity of his estate, but even in Kiev at the "Contracts" ".

The nouns of the general gender do not include the above names of persons by age, marital status with the ending -а: young man, elder, uncle, always remaining masculine words, also evaluative words without the ending - а: darling, lazy, lazy, wretch, scoundrel, slobber, by general rule belonging to the male gender.

Beloshapkova V.A., Bryzgunova E.A. and others in the textbook "Modern Russian Language" refer to the general nouns of the words that were previously related to the masculine gender: doctor, doctor, director, secretary, surgeon, agronomist, etc. Moreover, denoting females, these nouns are easily combined with forms of the feminine past tense of verbs: the doctor came, the director said, and also easily change the pronoun - the noun she. Thus, words such as director, doctor, engineer are no longer masculine words, but have not yet become general words. After all, they can be combined with adjectives in the masculine gender (good, respected, etc.) and cannot be combined with adjectives in the feminine gender (in Russian you cannot say “good doctor” or “respected director” even when designating feminine persons floor). These are a kind of only "candidates" for general words.

The newest changes in the structure of the genus of nouns are associated with the living conditions of people - the active participation of women in industrial and social life, their mastering of "male" professions. The language had masculine nouns to designate these professions and positions. A contradiction arose between the phenomena of life and the means of language. However, it can hardly be assumed that the full occurrence in the general genus of words such as director, and even more so phrases such as a good doctor (genitive) or a respected secretary ( dative) will happen soon.

Paired genus

The three traditional genders do not reflect the properties of all Russian nouns, even considered in the form of the nominative singular. It is about nouns that name objects that are unique, specific, associated with the idea of ​​counting, but do not have formal means to express the uniqueness of plurality: trousers, scales, scissors, glasses, sledges, abacus, watches, tongs, etc. It is clear that nouns of this type , being from the point of view of content ordinary words of the Russian language, can not be attributed either to the masculine, or to the middle, or to the feminine gender. These nouns in Russian represent a special gender. Their genus is called paired, because they denote objects consisting of two parts (glasses, sleigh, scissors, trousers, collars). Among the nouns of the paired gender, there are no such that denote animate objects. Therefore, adjectives, participles, verbs in the past tense form or pronouns replacing these nouns that are consistent with these nouns completely coincide with the corresponding coordinated word forms associated with the plural forms of inanimate nouns of masculine, feminine and neuter gender. However, this point of view is purely formal. Taking into account the meaning of paired nouns, it must be recognized that they, as well as the word forms that are consistent with them, have a homonymy of numbers. The selection of the paired gender is also dictated by the fact that grammatical categories should 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" have defined a clear system of childbirth. “In the Russian language there is a system of four genders, three of which are subdivided into animate and inanimate varieties. This system can be represented in the form of seven concordant classes: I - male inanimate (plant), II - male animate (boy), III - female inanimate (factory), IV - female animate (girl), V - middle inanimate (field) , VI - medium animated (insect), VII - paired (trousers). It can be argued that there are no nouns in the Russian language that could not be attributed to one of the seven concordant classes. "

But in the Russian language there are nouns that can be simultaneously attributed to several concordant classes. These nouns of "crossed" concordant classes (in the terminology of A.A. Zaliznyak) can be of two types:

1. Nouns denoting substances, materials that have a collective meaning, naming abstract actions, processes, states, games, geographical points, are nouns, lexical meaning which are not related to the expression of the idea of ​​quantity. These nouns, in the singular form, belong to the feminine or neuter gender, do not have differences in agreement due to animate inanimate, and, therefore, can be considered as belonging simultaneously to III and IV (youth) or V and VI (students) grades. The plural words of this group can be regarded as simultaneously referring to I, III, V and VII (spirits) classes.

2. Nouns capable of having two meanings of gender - masculine and feminine: ignorant, bully, soy. If this word characterizes a female person (Masha was a terrible ignoramus), the word refers to the female gender; if the person is male (Petya was an unimaginable bully), the word refers to the male gender. Such nouns are called general nouns.