I obtained a doctoral degree in Russian Linguistics from the O. Potebnia Institute for Linguistics, National Academy of Sciences (Kiev, Ukraine) in the summer of 2000.

Dissertation was entitled “Gender Category in Modern Russian (functional and typological-characterological aspects)”.

My research considered the problem of Gender Category in Modern Russian. Using a method of functional-semantic analysis, I identified two subcategories in Russian: those of formal grammatical gender and semantic biological sex. My contrastive and characterological analysis revealed a correlation of the semantic gender categories in Russian and English, their similarities and differences, which I explained through differences in national mentalities and cultures. I reviewed lingua-cultural, social and legal aspects of this topic and have shown some national discrepancies and mutual problems in regard to both Russian and English. Several conclusions of my dissertation could be applied to theoretical and communicative courses of Russian. Since I identified two categories in Russian: those of grammatical and semantic gender – this statement can directly be used in explaining gender category to American students having the lacuna (absence of grammatical gender in English) related to this problem. The explanation of pronouns could be based on distinguishing these two categories.