Rol rodovogo ponyatya (giperonima) pri opredelenii roda nesklonyaemyh heodushevlennych suschestvitelnyh
The role of hypernyms for determining the grammatical gender of undeclinable inanimate nouns in Russian

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we study the role of hypernyms in determining the grammatical gender of inanimate indeclinable words in modern Russian. We further try to outline thematic groups of nouns whose grammatical gender is determined by hypernyms. The grammatical genders of corresponding hypernyms can determine the genders of indeclinable nouns for various thematic groups that are related to different areas of human life and the environment. The hypernym determining the grammatical gender of borrowed indeclinable nouns may be absent from the interpretation of hyponyms, but it is implied. Within a given thematic group, indeclinable inanimate nouns can be both masculine and feminine in gender. However, there are some thematic groups within which all nouns are either only masculine (e.g., names of languages, winds, seasons, grapes, weapons, musical voices, months and days) or only feminine (e.g., names of songs, diseases).

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