The Category of Gender in the English, Tatar and Russian languages: a Comparative Aspect

Abstract

<p>The relevance of this study is conditioned by the fact that the study of languages in the comparative aspect contributes to the identification of common and specific features of linguistic material, the description of the national picture of the world, cognitive thinking, linguocultural features of native speakers, interaction and mutual enrichment of languages, the solution of linguistic and linguodidactic tasks, which is part of the modern system of linguistic research. The category of gender, being one of the most complex and universal grammatical characteristics, is a subject of close attention of linguists. The importance of its study is conditioned by the need for a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of the grammatical and lexical-semantic potential of this category in languages with different structures. In modern linguistics, research in this area focuses on cognitive, gender and functional aspects of the category of gender. This study aims to examine the category of gender from the point of view of its grammatical and lexical-semantic realization in differently structured English, Tatar and Russian languages. This paper considers the formation of gender category of some nouns, reflects the system of morphological, syntactic and lexical features of feminine, masculine and middle genders in the languages under consideration. The article gives the specificity of representation of this category by lexical and grammatical means of languages, analyses morphological and semantic ways of nouns' relation to grammatical gender. In the paper a comparative analysis is carried out, the general and specific features of this category are determined on the basis of the languages under study. The results of the analysis can be used in further linguistic research, as well as in teaching a foreign language with reference to the native and/or previously learnt foreign language.</p>