32. Noun: the category of gender.

The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. These serve as specific gender classifiers of nouns, being potentially reflected on each entry of the noun in speech. The category of gender is strictly oppositional. It is formed by two oppositions related to each other on a hierarchical basis.

One opposition functions in the whole set of nouns, dividing them into person (human) nouns and non-person (non-human) nouns. The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only, dividing them into masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Thus, the first, general opposition can be referred to as the upper opposition in the category of gender, while the second, partial opposition can be referred to as the lower opposition in this category.

As a result of the double oppositional correlation, a specific system of three genders arises, which is somewhat misleadingly represented by the traditional terminology: the neuter (i.e. non-person) gender, the masculine (i.e. masculine person) gender, the feminine (i.e. feminine person) gender. The feminine subclass of person nouns includes such nouns as woman, girl, mother, bride, etc. The masculine subclass of person nouns comprises such words as man, boy, father, bridegroom, etc.

A great many person nouns in English are capable of expressing both feminine and masculine person genders. They are called nouns of the "common gender". Here belong such words as person, parent, friend, cousin, doctor, president, etc. The capability of expressing both genders makes the gender distinctions in the nouns of the common gender into a variable category. On the other hand, when there is no special need to indicate the sex of the person referents of these nouns, they are used neutrally as masculine, i.e. they correlate with the masculine third person pronoun. In the plural, all the gender distinctions are neutralised in the immediate exp`licit expression, though they are rendered obliquely through the correlation with the singular.

English nouns can also show the sex of their referents lexically, either by means of being combined with certain notional words used as sex indicators, or else by suffixal derivation: e.g. boy-friend, girl-friend; landlord, landlady; master, mistress; actor, actress; etc.

The category of gender in English is inherently semantic, i.e. meaningful in so far as it reflects the actual features of the named objects.

33. Noun: the category of number.

A noun is said to be in the singular number when it denotes one person or thing; it is said to be in the plural number when it denotes more than one person or thing.

ME distinguishes 2 numbers: singular and plural. So the category of number is expressed by the binary private opposition. The strong member is the plural and the weak member is the singular. The productive way of expressing the number is the morpheme –(e)s with allophones [s],[z],[iz].

The productive way of expressing the singular is by zero morpheme (coveral morpheme).

The other ways are vowel interchange as in man-men, woman — women (replacive morpheme). The archaic[ɑ:'keɪɪk] suffix –(e)n supported by phonemic interchange in a couple of other relict forms as in ox-oxen, child-children and the correlation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number of borrowed nouns (formula — formulae, phenomenon — phenomena, etc.). In some cases the plural form of the noun is homonymous with the singular form (sheep, deer, fish, etc.).

The semantic nature of the difference between singular and the plural presents difficulty of interpretation. On the surface of semantic relations, the meaning of the singular will be understood as simply "one", as opposed to the meaning of the plural as "many" in the sense of "more than one". This is apparently obvious for such correlations as book — books, lake — lakes and the like. However, there exist plurals and singulars that cannot be fully accounted like that. This becomes clear when we look at such forms as potato (one item of the vegetables) and potatoes (food), paper (material) and papers (notes or documents). It is sometimes stated that the plural form presents both multiplicity of separate objects ("discrete" plural, e.g. three houses) and multiplicity of units of measure for an indivisible object ("plural of measure", e.g. three hours). Whereas three houses are three separate objects, three hours are a continuous period of time measured by a certain agreed unit of duration.

We must also consider two types of nouns differing from all others in the way of number: they have only one form. The nouns which have only a plural and no singular are usually termed "pluralia tantum" (which is the Latin for "plural only"), and those which have only a singular and no plural are termed "singularia tantum" (the Latin for "singular only'').

Among the pluralia tantum are the nouns of two types. On the one hand, there are the nouns which denote material objects consisting of two halves (trousers, scissors, etc.); on the other, there are those which denote a more or less indefinite plurality (e. g. environs 'areas surrounding some place on all sides'; dregs 'various small things remaining at the bottom of a vessel after the liquid has been poured out of it', etc.). Close to this group of pluralia tantum nouns are also some names of sciences, e. g. mathematics, physics, phonetics, also politics, and some names of diseases, e. g. measles, mumps, rickets.

The direct opposite of pluralia tantum are the singularia tantum, i. e. the nouns which have no plural form. Among these there are some nouns denoting material substance, such as milk, butter, etc., and also names of abstract notions, such as peace, usefulness, etc. Nouns of this kind express notions which are, outside the sphere of number: e. g. milk, or fluency.

Some nouns denoting substance, or material, may have a plural form. For instance, the noun wine denotes a certain substance, but it has a plural form wines used to denote several special kinds of wine. The noun beauty denotes a certain quality presented as an object, but it may be used in the plural to denote objects exhibiting that quality, e. g. the beauties of nature.

There are also such nouns as collective which are used to denote the group as a whole, and in that case they are treated as singulars. And there are nouns of multitude. This is the group of nouns consisting of a certain number of individual human beings (or animals). The difference between these two groups of nouns may be seen in such examples as My family is small, and My family are good speakers. It is obvious that in the first sentence the characteristic "small" applies to the family as a whole, while in the second the characteristic "good speakers" applies to every single member of the family.