Клас и род

The great variety of languages finds expression in the specific ways of noun division according to certain criteria (animate/inanimate, nominal classes, grammatical gender, etc.). The paper first discusses some nominal systems typical of a number of African, Caucasian and Australian languages. The problem of grammatical gender as a classifying (and word-changing) category is discussed further on. The formation and development of this grammatical category is traced out in the Semitic and Indo-European languages. The basic criteria for assigning nouns to a particular grammatical gender are analysed. The paper presents a detailed study of the grammatical and lexical means of indicating natural sex in unrelated languages (through affixation, noun determiners, heteronymy).