Grammatical Ambiguity Issues for Personal Names

Personal names (Slavic and non-Slavic) that appear in Slavic and East European publications can often present challenges in identification of the person’s gender, and therefore in identifying the grammatically correct form of his or her name to use in constructing authorized access points. Slavic names often appear in declined form on title pages because of the publisher’s use of grammatical forms that show the author as the possessor (as in the English ending ’s), or when the author is the object of the unwritten preposition "by”.

Typically, the confusion arises between the genitive forms of names of male authors and the nominative forms of names of female authors. When in doubt about whether the author is male or female, the cataloger can come to a solution by determining whether the author’s name, as written, is in the nominative or genitive case. If it has indeed been grammatically declined, the cataloger will revert the name to its nominative case form and correctly construct the authorized access point.

Examples:

Feminine name appears in nominative case.

Фото Стоянович:

роман-колаж

Евгения Иванова

[name of female Bulgarian writer]

София

Балкани

2007

Authorized access point for the author: Ivanova, Evgenii︠a︡.

Masculine name appears in genitive case.

Афоризмы

Евгения Иванова

[name of male Russian poet]

Москва

Форум

2015

Authorized access point for the author: Ivanov, Evgeniĭ.

This is especially true for persons whose first name could be used for men as well as for women, for example, pairs like “Valentin, Valentyn / Valentina, Valentyna”; “Evgenii / Evgenii︠a︡”; “Aleksandr / Aleksandra”; “Vladimir / Vladimira”; “Ivan / Ivana”; “Petr / Petra”, etc. Compare with: Konstantina Ivanova, where it is clear that the name for a male author Konstantin Ivanov appears in genitive case (no female counterpart for the name Konstantin exists).

Declension and gender in personal surnames

Surnames typically have different endings for males and females. For example, a common pattern is -ov (for men) and -ova for women. There are a number of last names, however, that do not decline, making it difficult to identify a person’s gender and construct an authorized access point in a correct form.

Examples of such non-declining surnames are Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian last names ending in:

-аго- (Живаго)

-іло/ило- (Живило)

-ко/енко/enka- (Локотко, Николаенко, Никалаенка)

Examples:

Surname of Ukrainian origin in Russian language context:

Nominative case : Nikolaenko, Viktor (male); Nikolaenko, Nina (female)

Genitive case: Nikolaenko Viktora; Nikolaenko Niny

BUT:

Belarusian and Ukrainian masculine names will decline in the genitive case. Thus:

Nominative case: Nikalaenka, Viktar (Belarusian)

Genitive case: Nikalaenki Viktara

Nominative case: Shevchenko, Taras (Ukrainian)

Genitive case: Shevchenka Tarasa

To add yet another wrinkle, some last names will decline for masculine names, but not for feminine ones.

For example, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian last names ending in:

-ых/их- (Белых)

-ич/іч- (Сенкевич, Сянькевіч)

-ук/юк- (Крутук, Жив'юк)

-eц/oц- (Гаврилец)

-ак/як- (Первак, Крысяк)

-аль/oль- (Доўгаль)

-ко/ка/енко/енка- (Локотко, Николаенко, Никалаенка)

Also:

- names such as Бегун, Мельник, Соловей, Калоша, Нахапет, and the like, when a name takes the form of a noun

- Slavic last names of German and other Western European origin: Штэрн, Герлингер, Вайсман, Новак, Лерма

Example:

Nominative case: Pervak, Alesʹ (male); Pervak, Alesi︠a︡ (female)

Genitive case: Pervaka Alesi︠a︡; BUT: Pervak Alesi

In order to identify the gender and correct grammatical form of the name in such cases, knowledge of the person's first name will help, or further research should be conducted.

Sometimes personal names appear on the source in abbreviated form, making it unclear whether a person’s name is masculine or feminine.

Example:

Глинка

П. и В. Слетовы

Because the authors' given names are given only as initials and the surname is given in a plural form that could indicate either two or more men or two or more men and women, the authors' genders and names are completely unclear. Either or both could be men or women.

Suggested cataloging practice: Do research and try to find the authors’ full names. If no fuller form can be found, and the authors' genders are still unknown, choose either the masculine or feminine form for each name, make a variant access point from the other form, and code the record as provisional.

Examples (in MARC format):

100 1 Sletov, V.

400 1 Sletova, V.

670 Glinka, 1935: ǂb t.p. (... P. i V. Sletovy)

100 1 Sletov, P.

400 1 Sletova, P.

670 Glinka, 1935: ǂb t.p. (... P. i V. Sletovy)