The Category of Gender.

In Slavic languages it is a full-fledged category which finds its expression in the inflexioned feminine, masculine and neuter. Inflexions are supported by sound interchange (старик:: старуха).In German it is expressed by articles and suffixes, in French it is the articles which are the markers of the masculine and the feminine. Gender distinctions in the corresponding languages are illogical.

In OE gender was a morphological category. In present day English it is a purely lexico-semantic category, as there are no grammatical means to express gender distinctions here. There exists a whole system of lexical and semantic devices to express gender. Word-building processes (derivation, composition) are involved here. Gender distinctions are expressed by compositional models( a he-cat, a she-cat, a tom-cat, a pussy-cat, a he-wolf, a she-wolf, a man-servant, a lady-driver, etc.), by the derivative model with the productive suffix -ess (poetess, huntress, lioness, actress, empress, benefactress, etc. ), by semantic oppositions ( king :: queen, nephew:: niece, husband:: wife, stallion:: mare, etc.), by gender-sensitive pronouns he, she, it (Love is mightier than Philosophy, though He is might. O.Wilde).

Gender, expressed by gender-sensitive pronouns he, she, it, divides the class of English nouns into non-human (mountain , lake, house, street ), common human (person, child, parent: he is an artist; she is an artist), male human ( man, boy, youth, husband, father, uncle), female human ( woman, girl, wife, mother, lady, aunt).

Traditionally some nouns are referred to as feminine: ships, cars, seas, oceans, the names of countries and cities( San Francisco was lying on her seven hills).

Poets and writers are free to ascribe words to any gender ( The soul selects her own society and shuts the door. E. Dickinson. The sun is a huntress young. V.Lindsay). In St.King’s writings we see two moons: a he-moon (a demon-moon) and a she-moon.

Being a lexico-semantic category, gender tends to be grammaticalized. The suffix -ess seems to be on the way to turning into a regular grammatical inflexion. We can predict that with the course of time English gender can acquire a new life as a grammatical category.