Gender is a complicated term in linguistics and the debatable issue is that gender allocation system is rule governed or a random activity. Corbett (2006) established that gender assignment is based on certain criteria, which vary in different languages. According to Corbett (2006), two main criteria are found universally i.e. semantic and formal. The basic aim of this study is to investigate the gender allocation to noun is rule-governed or random in English and Punjabi languages. English has a natural gender system while Punjabi has a grammatical gender system. The findings show that gender allocation to noun is rule-governed in English language; whereas, it is somehow random in Punjabi language. In English language, semantic criterion is used to assign gender while formal criterion is also used to allocate gender to some nouns while in Punjabi both semantic and formal criteria are use side by side to allocate gender to noun.

*Govt. Dyal Singh College Lahore

**Institute of Education and Research, University of the Punjab

*** PhD student (Linguistics) The University of  Lahore

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