Mistakes in gender categorization in speech production of foreigners studying Russian

The failure to determine the grammatical gender category of adjectives, ordinal numerals and possessive pronouns in the speech production of foreigners representing a monoethnic (Chinese) group of students is considered from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The analysis of the written works and oral statements of students studying Russian as a foreign language reveals a mechanism that leads to typical mistakes in this aspect of Russian grammar. Categorization by gender of nouns occurs through cognitive mechanisms of correlation and comparison, namely: by biological gender – motivated, by formal attribute – unmotivated; categorization by gender of adjectives, possessive pronouns and ordinal numerals, as the categorization of secondary (unmotivated) features, is absent for foreign residents. Accordingly, for a foreigner, a cognizable category that does not have an ontological character becomes a difficult obstacle to overcome at the initial stage of language learning.