Grammatical Categories of Number, Case, and Gender in Modern English. A Field Approach

I wish to give a few examples:

actor - Used for both male and female--traditionally, actor and actress; poet for both poet and poetess. The purpose is to avoid gender bias about which people are very conscious today.

governor - for both male and female. This is perhaps because the woman ruler of a province would not like the word 'governess' to be used for her lest people misunderstand that she is someone employed in a rich family to teach its children.

priest - for both male and female. A modern ordained clergywoman would not like to be called a 'priestess.' I think, the word reminds people of temple prostitution in ancient cultures.

A Problem.

Look at this example.

A teacher should not say lies. ________ should always speak the truth.

Would you put a he or a she in the blank space? English uses the pronoun 'he' for masculine, 'she' for feminine, and 'it' for neuter. These words are all singulars.

English has no pronoun to use for common gender, singular, and third person .

The nature of this problem and the various solutions offered, even strange ones such as the 'singular they' (the use of which has now become respectable) is another story.

Nowadays the linguistic realization of gender differences is one of the burning matters in social spheres, being at the same time the issue of constant misunderstandings. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to view the present-day status of the grammatical category of gender in Modern English as a result of language historical development as well as due to the pragmatic distinguishing of certain gender forms in different communicative situations.

As is known, English gender is realized as masculine, feminine and neuter forms in order to explain the relations between the animate noun and its external referent. In different languages including English there are two basic types of gender systems: strict semantic system, or semantic gender, where the meaning of the noun determines its gender, and formal system, or grammatical gender, when the noun assignments depend on formal criteria - either word-structure or sound-structure.

It is important to state that the grammatical gender was widely used in the structure of Old English but it started disappearing between the Periods of Middle and Modern English. In Modern English the linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished from the biological and social notionsof natural gender, although they interact closely in many languages, affecting their linguistic systems.

In English the category ofgender has a binary hierarchical classification presented by upper (person: non-person) and lower (masculine::feminine) oppositions. The members of the oppositions are differentiated in some languages (e.g. German, Ukrainian) by means of formal markers, e.g. inflections and articles. In Modern English there are no formal markers to distinguish the strong and the weak members of gender oppositions. They can be distinguished semantically: nouns of the neuter gender in the upper level of the opposition are more abstract if compared to the nouns of masculine and feminine genders; they are the weak member of the opposition and are naturally used in the position of neutralization.

It follows that gender in Modern English exists as the semantic category preserving some features of the grammatical gender that existed in Old English. Due to this, it is also termed the pronominal category since personal pronouns qualify the gender of its noun-referent in the certain context.The pronouns he/she/who are used in order to denote personal nouns while the pronouns it/which denote non-personal nouns.

The pronominal gender is greatly influenced by extralinguistic factors, such as context, time conditions and the speaker.Gender in the language reflects the social constructions of gender learned, maintained and perpetuated by speakers. Social constructions of gender represent combinations of features inherent in reality and of society's attitudes toward those features. There is no clear correlation of gender with sex: the choice of the pronoun that is used to denote the certain gender form depends not on characteristics of the noun or of its referent, but depends instead entirely on speaker-dependent factors, which are variable and unpredictable.

Therefore, the forms of gender indication are lexico-semantic (change of words: man -woman, bull-cow, etc.) and morphological (inflections: host - hostess, hero -heroine; addition of a word: male cat - female cat, he cat - she cat,etc.).

1.In the guidelines (neuter) for the 2007 budget bill, presented in June, the government (common) proposed a gradual reduction in the budget deficit after 2006.

2.In the third quarter, the company (neuter) launched yet another cost cutting program (neuter), but this has yet to translate into a tangible improvement in the company's financial performance.

3. Instead of issuing stock certificates for each individual (common) share issued to a shareholder, a stock company can issue a single document (neuter) representing the aggregate number of shares owned by the individual shareholder.

4. It is hoped that the improved geopolitical situation (neuter), advantageous financial conditions (neuter), flexible macroeconomic policy (neuter), structural reforms (neuter) will condition (neuter) faster EU development (neuter) in the nearest years (neuter).

5. It (neuter) maintains relations (neuter) with similar national and foreign organizations (neuter) and embassies (neuter) and helps its members (common) to find partners (common), organizes trips (neuter) to exhibitions (neuter) and trade missions (neuter).

6. It should be noted that almost 50% of products (neuter) are bought by individuals (common) and small building firms (neuter), i.e. those who build “for themselves” and that is why carefor the quality (neuter) of future buildings (neuter) very mach.

7.It turns out that the generally favourable assessment (neuter) of both domestic and foreign demands (neuter) promotes decisions (neuter) to expand one's business (neuter).

8. Keeping the budget (neuter) balanced means keeping tight control (neuter) of all expenses (neuter) and delaying investment (neuter) in the infrastructure (neuter) end social sector (neuter).

9.Local authorities (common) may also collect revenue (neuter) from a number of local taxes (neuter), such as advertisement tax (neuter), community development tax (neuter), hotel tax (neuter), parking tax (neuter), recreation tax (neuter), and other taxes (neuter).

10.Many indicators (neuter) influencing investment attractiveness (neuter) were considered in the ranking, including access (neuter), transportation (neuter), human resources (neuter), labour costs,(neuter) the size (neuter) of the market (neuter), business infrastructure(neuter), the condition (neuter)of the environment (neuter) and the activity (neuter) of provincial authorities (common) in attracting investors (common).

11.Moreover, the values (neuter) of the acquired companies' (neuter) liabilities (neuter) and contingent liabilities (neuter) which had not been disclosed in the financial statements (neuter) of the companies (neuter) or were disclosed in lower amounts (neuter) was also increased as a result (neuter) of the valuation (neuter).

12.Most favoured regime (neuter) means that foreign subjects (neuter) of economic activities have the same volume of rights (neuter) , preferences(neuter) and privileges (neuter) concerning taxes (neuter)and duties(neuter), which will be used or are already used by a foreign subject of international activities (neuter) who was given the above mentioned regime(neuter)..

13.Movables (neuter) were valued using the multiples method (neuter),taking into account (neuter) the adjusted initial value (neuter) of tangible assets(neuter), the technical condition (neuter), the technical and economic wear and tear(neuter), and the effect (neuter)of macroeconomic factors(neuter).

14. On the first half of December (neuter) 2006, the company (neuter)will transport its one-million passenger (common) for the current year(neuter); this is a record (neuter)not only for this company (neuter) itself, but also for the whole airline industry (neuter).

15.Once the decision (neuter) is made to re-issue a license (neuter) due to informational changes (neuter), the licensing body (neuter) will annul the original license (neuter) and introduce the corresponding entry (neuter) into the unified license register (neuter) by the next workday (neuter).

16. One of key objectives (neuter) is to find an optimal and constructive balance (neuter) between the needs (neuter) of businesses (neuter) and the interests (neuter) of employees (common), as well as to create conditions (neuter) that allow domestic enterprises (neuter) to be as successful and competitive as possible.

17. Our product (neuter) is a range of high-quality services (neuter) aimed at meeting of the interests (neuter) of investors (common) and subjects (neuter) of investments (neuter) in implementation (neuter) of prospective investments projects (neuter).

18. Packaging (neuter) and logistics (neuter) are becoming more important with rapid market changes (neuter) and customers (common) now demand a package (neuter) of goods (neuter) and services (neuter) consisting of projection (neuter) , delivery (neuter), installation (neuter) and after-sales-service (neuter) with financing also becoming a decisive factor (neuter).

19. PricewaterhouseCoopers' service (neuter) includes a full line of legal and tax services (neuter); audit, advisory services (neuter); corporate finance and human resources advisory services (neuter).

20. Probably the growth (neuter) of real wages (neuter) in the first two quarters (neuter) of next year (neuter) will also be slightly slower, at around 3.2 percent (neuter).

21.Proceeds (neuter) from the investment (neuter)were used to modernize the plant's second production line(neuter), allowing the company (neuter)to double its production capacity (neuter).

22. Regional representative offices (common) allow within the short terms (neuter) and as fast as possible to solve different technical, legal and organizational questions (neuter) in the course of project implementation (neuter) at all levels (neuter) of state and regional administration bodies (neuter).

The stated above proves that the category of gender in Modern English is realized as semantic category, represented by means of lexico-semantic and morphological gender forms as well as pronouns used according to extralinguistic factors.



Conclusion

The set of grammatical categories includes, among others, tense, aspect, mood, case. They connect grammar and semantics and play an essential role in the syntactic analysis of clauses and the semantic analysis of clauses and propositions. Their study leads to general issues such as the source of grammatical categories, the evolution of language, language and cognition, metaphor and first language acquisition.

The meaning in English--and in any other language--starts with a noun. The noun working syntactically as subject is always present, although that can happen explicitly, indirectly--via pronouns--or implicitly.

Nouns are presented in this page according to the following simplified structure:

1. Categories of Nouns

2. The Number of the Noun

3. The Gender of the Noun

4. The Case of the Noun

Nouns are principal sentence elements, while articles, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals, are secondary sentence elements. Studying the noun cluster facilitates understanding a few, very important, grammatical notions:

1. grammatical category of "number"

2. grammatical category of "gender"

3. grammatical category of "case"

The category of gender of the noun is expressed in English through two oppositions: the first presupposes dividing the nouns into human and nonhuman. The non-human nouns represent the neuter gender. The lower division of the nouns is into nouns of masculine a feminine genders. The peculiar feature of English gender is its semantic character while the peculiar feature of gender in Russian is its formal feature.

The category of Number is compressed by the opposition of the plural form ofthe noun to the singular form. The problem is simple with the countable nouns when the plural forms by odding “s” to the singular form of the noun.

But the category of number has some pecularities. Just there exist besides common singular and plural so called singularia tantum and pluralia tantum expressing generally the ability of this or that noun to be used only in singular or only in plural. There are also rather many cases when one and the same noun can be used in common singular and/or plural and as absolute singular and/or absolute plural.

Thus, we can see that English categories of case, number and gender are closely interconnected. That is why they must be considered together in order to produce the most efficient results in the course of linguistic material analysis.



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Summary

У магістерській роботі ми ґрунтовно дослідили граматичні категорії числа, відмінка, і роду в сучасній англійській мові із застосуванням польового підходу.

У сучасному мовознавстві намітилася тенденція до висвітлення порівняння у функціонально-семантичному напрямку. Запорукою успіху на шляху до систематизації всіх наявних у мові засобів вираження порівняння вважаємо розроблену О.В.Бондарком ідею функціонально-семантичного поля, оскільки вона уможливлює функціональне об'єднання всіх різнорівневих засобів із погляду мовця. В сучасній лінгвістиці польовий підхід до вивчення мовних явищ набув значного поширення саме завдяки здатності до виявлення системної організації мови.

Отже, ми прийшли до висновку, що функціонально-семантичне поле граматичних категорій числа, відмінка, і роду в сучасній англійській мові займає вагоме місце як у теоретичній, так і в практичній граматиці. Даний підхід дозволяє комплексно досліджувати окремі граматичні категорії з урахуванням окремих контекстних ситуацій та типів тексту.

Практичний аналіз граматичних категорій англійської мови нами був проведений на прикладі матеріалів ділового дискурсу.

Робота складається з двох розділів. У першому розділі розглядаються теоретичні аспекти функціонування граматичних категорій в англійській мові. У другому розділі проводиться аналіз функціонування категорій числа, роду та відмінку на прикладі окремо взятих речень.

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