The Russian Gender Categories

1. This paper is the first of a group of studies analyzing the noun categories associated with gender in the various Slavic languages. As Russian presents a particularly clear-cut set of categories, it is judged most suitable for presentation first, and for general discussion.' The phenomena considered are the subject of much attention in the current grammars, and in general the classifications made here are described more or less adequately. But the methods of analysis are vaguely stated and inconsistently followed, while historical considerations and the classical grammar of the schoolbooks succeed in masking or distorting the proper relations of categories to each other. This statement implies that better analyses are available; the contribution of this study to Slavic linguistics lies precisely in the method of analysis and the perspective of succession in which it presents the categories. 2.1. We are concerned with those parts of linguistic analysis usually treated under the terms morphology and syntax. It is well known that drawing an exact line between these two fields is not easy, and no satisfactory definitions of their respective provinces exist. I propose three techniques of analysis which can be used to cover the whole of the material; the subdivisions arrived at may not correspond exactly to any conventional subdivisions, but that is not important, for it will be seen that the delimitations here proposed are not haphazard but precise. 2.2. In the examination of the forms of a language as found in large bodies of text, it will appear without difficulty that some are more