Two related questions about gender.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

This was kicked off by the last post.

1. In linguistics, nouns are said to have natural or grammatical gender (this is not an exclusive "or"). Natural gender refers to the actual sex of the object, and grammatical gender refers to the class of a noun. What grammatical gender are words like папа? They are declined like feminine nouns, but given masculine modifiers. And is there a term for this?

2. Are there any instances where nouns that are naturally feminine appear masculine? I've only seen it the other way around.

[Edit] Thank you for all your quick responses!

Comments

[wattson.livejournal.com]

Папа - feminine ending, but masculine gender (one of the very few words)
Agreement is determined by the following algorithm:

If the noun has (natural) gender, assign feminine agreement for feminine nouns and masculine gender for masculine nouns;
If the noun does not have gender, assign agreement as follows:
Masculine agreement to Declension I nouns ending on a consonant;
Neuter agreement to Declension I nouns ending on o or e and Declension III nouns ending on мя;
Feminine agreement to Declension II nouns and Declension III nouns ending on soft consonants;
Plural agreement to Declension IV nouns.
If the noun is indeclinable, assign Neuter agreement.

Russian Agreement Patterns
Attributive Agreement
Dec. I, consonant милый стул a nice chair
Dec. I, vowel милое письмо a nice letter
Dec. II милая книга a nice book
Dec. III, consonant милая дверь a nice door
Dec. IV милые чернила nice ink
Indeclinable милое пальто a nice overcoat

Predicate Agreement
Dec. I, consonant Стул милый. The chair is nice.
Dec. I, vowel Письмо милое. The letter is nice.
Dec. II Книга милая. The book is nice.
Dec. III, consonant Дверь милая. The door is nice.
Dec. IV Чернила милые. The ink is nice.
Indeclinable Пальто милое. The overcoat is nice.

Verbal Agreement
Dec. I, consonant Стул упал . The chair fell.
Dec. I, vowel Письмо упало. The letter fell.
Dec. II Книга упала. The book fell.
Dec. III, consonant Дверь упала. The door fell.
Dec. IV Чернила упали. The ink fell.
Indeclinable Пальто упало. The overcoat fell.

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

If the noun is indeclinable, assign Neuter agreement. Official rules say that indeclinable кофе is masculine, although many speakers treat it as neuter.