Gender of nouns

There is no purely grammatical means of Gender expression in the English language. Gender is inbuilt in the nounal semantics, that is why some nouns such as boy, man, husband have 'he' in their semantic structure; girl, woman, wife have 'she' in their semantic structure; that is, 'he' and 'she' are inbuilt in the meaning of names of human beings of a certain sex and only person nouns are subject to gender expression. All other nouns, names of inanimate things and names of living beings of a lower organization, such as birds, animals, insects, etc. are associated with 'it' as part of their semantics.

There are traditional cases of association of certain nouns with certain genders. We can use 'he - she' for an animal if we know the animal's sex and feel sympathy or interest.

• Go and find the cat and put him out.

'She' can be used for a country, a city in myths, poetry, politico-economic texts or in unofficial style.

• England is proud of her poets.

'Nature' is 'it' in a neutral context and 'she' in the emotionally coloured text.

• If Nature is to be commanded, she must be obeyed.

Ship, plane, boat, hovercraft are referred to as 'she' (shuttle - 'it').

• What a lovely ship! What is she called?

Car, automobile are referred to as 'it', however, they, especially those in which the speaker takes a personal pride, can be referred to as 'she' or 'he' by men or women respectively. 'It' may be used for person nouns if we mean not a person but the social position, status, or rank. 'It' is closely associated with the absence of individuality and is often used scornfully.

• She is the managing director and looks it.

There are various ways of indicating the belonging of the noun to the feminine gender, as non-expression of the feminine gender is understood as belonging to the masculine gender. They are: suffixes, compound words of certain structure, word of different roots.

1. The suffixes —ess, -ine, -ix, -ina, -ette mark the feminine gender: administrator —
administratrix, czar - czarina, executor - executrix, hero — heroin, host — hostess, tiger —
tigeress, testator - testatrix (завещатель), usher - usherette (привратник). The suffix -
er marks the masculine gender: widow - widower.

2. Gender is expressed in compound words with the second component -man, -woman, -
boy, -girl, lord, -lady, -cock, -hen: salesman — saleswoman, washer man — washer­
woman, cash-boy - cash girl, landlord- landlady, peacock - peahen. There can also be

some other indicators of gender: Pussycat - Tomcat, she-goat - he-goat. The masculine noun bridegroom is opposed to the feminine noun bride.

3. There are different words (of different roots) for creatures of male and female sex: man -
woman, lad - lass, brother - sister, bachelor - spinster, father - mother, husband - wife,
son - daughter, nephew - niece, uncle - aunt, gentleman - lady, sir - madam, wizard -
witch, king - queen, monk- nun, lord- lady. But these pairs of words are not equal in
status and meaning in some or all contexts. As a rule, the feminine nouns differ from the
corresponding masculine counterparts not only in the expression of another sex, but have
other overtones and even meanings: lord - supreme male ruler; God. Lady - woman
belonging to upper classes; woman who has good manners; (GB) used of and to wives or
daughters of some nobles. Witch - woman said to use magic, esp. for evil purposes; (fig.)
fascinating and bewitching woman. Wizard - magician; person with amazing abilities.

To express some male or female animals different words are used. There is often a quartet: the
name of the male, the name of the female, the name of the young and the common name.
Male Female Young Common

Boar sow [sau] piglet pig

Bull, steer (castr.) cow heifer, calf cattle, calf

Cock, rooster, capon hen chicken chicken

Dog	bitch	puppy	dog
Drake	duck	duckling	duck
Gander	goose	gosling	goose
Billy-goat	Nanny-goat	kid	goat
Lion	lioness	cub	lion
Ram	ewe [ju:]	lamb	sheep
Stag	hind	buck, doe	deer
Stallion, gelding	mare	foal, colt, filly	horse
Fox	vixen	cub	fox

A great many person nouns in English can express both feminine and masculine genders. There nouns are referred to as nouns of common gender, or dual gender: person, parent, friend, cousin, neighbour, student, doctor, teacher, professor, etc.

If there is no need to indicate the ex distinctions of the person expressed by the noun, it is used as masculine. To indicate the sex of a person formants as the first component of a compound formation can be used: man / woman, he / she, male / female: male-patient, female-child, boy-cousin, girl-schoolmate, woman-doctor.

People object to words for occupation and profession that are marked to indicate sex distinctions since they think that men and women are not treated in the same way. Speech and writing that make unnecessary distinctions based on sex are called sexist language. The word Mr does not show whether or not a man is married whereas Mrs is used for a married woman and Miss for a single woman making the distinction of a woman's social position. The term Ms was suggested as a compromise.

There are three possible ways to indicate the gender of a noun of common (dual) gender:

• When a relative arrives, he_ will be let in and his arrival will be welcome by everyone.

• When a relative arrives, he or she (he /she) will be let in and his or her (his /her) arrival
will be welcome by everyone.

• When a relative arrives, they will be let in and their arrival will be welcome by everyone.
The language reflects the situation in society. Social change and language change go hand in

hand. Formerly traditional social roles were expressed by compound nouns with -man or -woman as the second components of the noun. Now as most people object to words that show the sex of a person who is doing the work, a neutral form for both sexes is used.

Traditional male

Chairman

Barman

Businessman

Headmaster

Postman

Salesman

Spokesman

Steward

Bachelor

Fiance

Mankind

EXERCISES

Tradition al female chairwoman barmaid businesswoman headmistress post woman saleswoman spokeswoman stewardess / air hostess spinster fiancee

Non-sexist neutral

chairperson

bartender

businessperson / executive

head (teacher)

postie / postal worker

salesperson / sales representative

spokesperson

flight attendant

unmarried / single man / woman

partner

human beings

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14