Nouns with variation (fluctuation) by gender: normative and customary

The article examines nouns with variation (fluctuation) of the generic characteristic, the presence of which is difficult both for native speakers and especially for foreigners. Groups of such words are heterogeneous and consist of declensible and mostly non—declensible nouns, the gender of which is expressed only syntagmatically (by inflections of an attribute and/or predicate). There are several groups of non-declensible nouns. In the first group, the genus is variable only in usage. In the second group, gender is variable not only in usage, but also in dictionaries. In the third group, gender is regulated by the rule, and in different subgroups of this group, the factors determining the generic characteristic are different, while in the ordinary linguistic consciousness of native speakers there is a violation of these rules.  In the course of the work, methods of observation, comparison, statistics and generalization were applied. Special attention is paid to the analysis of sources, in particular dictionaries. As a result of the study of the materials of the National Corpus of the Russian language, conclusions were drawn about the existing incorrect uses of the recommended norms of the generic characteristics of some declinable nouns, about the frequency of the usual choice and the usual discrepancy of the generic characteristics of non-declinable nouns with the normative generic characteristics recommended by dictionaries and reference books, about the choice of a factor for the appearance of variability. The existence of diverse factors in determining the gender of indescribable nouns suggests that indescribable neologisms will continue to acquire variable generic characteristics, with the gender of the hyperonym having the greatest influence, as well as the presence of hyperonyms of various kinds (country/state, car/car, etc.) in relation to a particular word, including words whose definition the genus of which does not involve referring to the genus of the hyperonym.

variability of generic characteristics, the language norm, the usual usage, common nouns, non-declonable nouns, everyday linguistic consciousness, violation of the definition of gender, factors of gender variability, the role of the hyperonym, perspectives of the kind of neologisms