The role of gender in language acquisition

of the category of gender. Despite the fact that in Lithuanian gender marking is carried out through a two-member opposition, it can present certain difficulties in the sense that one marker is used to denote several categories, i.e. those of gender, case and number.

The analysis of the results pertaining to data on gender acquisition in Rūta’s speech does not allow us to assert that Lithuanian data support the hypothesis that the unmarked member of the opposition is acquired earlier than the marked one.