4. The problem of gender in the English language

The category of gender is expressed in English by the correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person.

The category of gender is presented by masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. Masculine gender comprises nouns denoting male sex, for example: a father, a brother. Feminine gender comprises nouns denoting female sex, for example a sister, a mother). Inanimate nouns and animate non-person nouns (for example: animals) belong to neuter gender. Thus, gender in English is defined by the meaning of the words.

Besides, English nouns can show the sex lexically: 1) some special words are added to a word to denote the gender in English: boy, male, man, he, tom, bull, cock (e.g.: boy-friend, male-reader, man-servant, man-producer, he-wolf, tom-cat, tom-swan, bull-calf, cock-sparrow, etc.); girl, female, woman, maid, she, cow, hen (e.g.: girl-friend, female reader, female child, woman-producer, woman-teacher, washer-woman, maid-servant, she-bear, cow-calf, hen-sparrow, etc.); 2) by suffixal derivation, i.e. some morphemes are added to a word to denote the gender in English: -ess, -ix (e.g.: actress, lioness, directrix, etc.).

5. The grammatical category of case in English.

Case is the morphological category of the noun. It is manifested in the forms of noun declension and shows the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena.

English nouns denoting living beings and some nouns denoting lifeless things have two cases:

- the common case, e.g.: the boy /the boys

- the genitive case, e.g.: the boy’s book /the boys’ school

The category of case is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -‘s (apostrophe s), usually called the possessive case, or the genitive case, to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the common case. The apostrophized -s serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the President’s decision, the boy’s ball, the Empress’s jewels.

6. Basic semantic types of the Genitive case in the English language

Basic semantic types of the genitive case can be the following:

1) The “genitive of possessor” expresses “inor­ganic” possession. E.g.: Chris­tine’s living-room; Kate and Jerry’s grandparents.

2) The “genitive of integer” expresses “organic possession”. E.g.: Jane’s busy hands; Patrick’s voice;

3) The “genitive of agent” is explained in its name: this form renders an activity or some procession of its doer. E.g.: the great man’s coming; Peter’s gaze.

4) The “genitive of patient” expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head-noun. E.g.: the city’s business leaders; the Titanic’s tragedy.

5) The “genitive of destination” denotes the destination, or function of the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: women’s footwear; children’s verses.

6) The “genitive of dispensed qualification” expresses some character­istic or qualification given by the genitive noun to the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: a girl’s voice; a book-keeper’s statistics.

7) The “genitive of adverbial” denotes adverbial factors relating to the referent of the head-noun, mostly the time and place of the event. E.g.: the evening’s newspaper; yesterday’s weather; Moscow’s talks.

8) The “genitive of quantity” denotes the measure or quantity relating to the referent of the head-noun. E.g.: three miles’ distance; two months’ time.