2. GENDER - A GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY
OF THE NOUN, WHICH REFLECTS THE
BIOLOGICAL CATEGORY OF SEX OF
THE NOUN REFERENT.
It plays an important role in the grammar of some languages.
3. IN ENGLISH GENDER DISTINCTIONS ARE
NOT FORMALLY MARKED IN THE NOUN
OR IN THE ARTICLE.
According to their lexical semantics, nouns can be divided into
neuter, masculine and feminine.
Neuter nouns denote lower animals, objects or abstract notions.
Neuter nouns can be substituted with the personal pronoun it
and the relative pronoun which.
4.
5.
6.
7. MASCULINE NOUNS DENOTE
HUMAN BEINGS OR HIGHER
ANIMALS OF MALE SEX.
Masculine nouns can be substituted with the personal pronoun
he and the relative pronoun who.
Feminine nouns denote human
beings or higher animals of female
sex.
Feminine nouns can be substituted with the personal pronoun
she and the relative pronoun who.
8. HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN TO USE HE,
SHE OR IT?
We can classify names of human beings - names
of males & names of females.
In terms of structure there is nothing in the form
of the proper noun to signal the sex of the
referent.
Still it is possible to know from social experience
whether it refers to males or females.
9. WHEN SUCH A NAME BECOMES THE NAME OF AN
INANIMATE OBJECT IT STILL RETAINS THIS FEATURE IN
ITS SEMANTIC COMPONENT NO MATTER THAT IT IS NOT
ACTIVE, THOUGH ANOTHER FEATURE OF THE SAME
NATURE /-SEX / PREDOMINATES.
+ proper
+ sex
+ animate
+ human
+ female
+ proper
-sex
- animate
- human
+ female
10. THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS HE, SHE, IT AND
THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS WHO, WHICH ARE
GENDER-SENSITIVE:
John is late ~He is late
Mary is late ~She is late
John and Mary are late ~They are late
Here the choice of pronoun is determined by the
sex of the person being referred to.
However, this distinction is lost in the plural
11. SOMETIMES THE NOUNS IN A PAIR ARE
MORPHOLOGICALLY MARKED FOR GENDER.
The marker is not considered to be a grammatical
ending, but a derivational suffix:
masculine feminine
actor actress
hunter huntress
lion lioness
hero heroine
widower widow
usher usherette
12. AS FOR FAMILY NAMES OF
HUMANS THE SITUATION IS
DIFFERENT
A family consists of male and female members
and that is why the family name as such has the
semantic features /female/ and /+female/.
Depending on the referent one of them becomes
active and the other passive.
Mr Johnson +male
The Johnsons
Mrs Johnson +female
13. IN BULGARIAN NOUNS ARE
MARKED FOR GENDER
Bulgarian category of gender is very strong.
In маса, стол we have gender, but not sex.
маса +common
- animate
- human
+ female
жена + common
+ animate
+ human
+ female
14. GENDER DIFFERENCES ARE ALSO
MANIFESTED IN POSSESSIVE
PRONOUNS (HIS/HERS) AND IN
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
(HIMSELF/HERSELF).
The natural distinctions reflected in such pairs as
brother/sister, nephew/niece, and king/queen
have no consequence for grammar.
While they refer to specific sexes, these words are
not masculine or feminine in themselves.
15. THESE DISTINCTIONS IN SPELLING REFLECT
DIFFERENCES IN SEX, BUT THEY HAVE NO
GRAMMATICAL IMPLICATIONS.
For instance, we use the same form of an adjective
whether we are referring to a waiter or to a
waitress:
an efficient waiter ~an efficient waitress
16. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF NOUNS MARKED
FOR GENDER
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
abbot abbess actor
actress
bachelor spinster, maid buck
doe
czar czarina drake duck
duke duchess earl countess
Francis Frances gander
goose
hero heroine lion
lioness
monk nun ram ewe
tiger tigress wizard witch
17. THE CATEGORY OF GENDER CAN BE SAID TO
BE BASED ON THE FUNCTIONAL OPPOSITIONS
OF THREE CATEGORICAL FORMS.
These oppositions can be presented in the
following way:
masculine
neuter
feminine
18. GENDER CLASSES
Personal nouns [+human] and nouns denoting
higher animals [- human; + animate] can be
organized in pairs or groups according to their
semantic relations.
Common countable nouns with the semantic feature
/+human/ fall into 2 groups as regards gender:
nouns with one single semantic feature for sex,
either /+male/ or /+female/
mother daughter
parent child
father son
19. NOUNS WITH BOTH SEMANTIC
FEATURES FOR SEX IN BINARY
OPPOSITION +/-MALE
They cannot function simultaneously in one and
the same linguistic context (usually denote an
occupation or a status of the referent)
20. COMMON COUNTABLE NOUNS WITH THE SEMANTIC
FEATURE /+ANIMATE/ BUT /-HUMAN/. NOUNS WITH
ONE SINGLE SEMANTIC FEATURE FOR SEX, EITHER
/+MALE/ OR /+FEMALE/
doe
fawn
stag
buck
mare filly
stallion colt
21. OTHER NOUNS HAVE TWO SEMANTIC
FEATURES FOR SEX: /+MALE/ AND
/+FEMALE/
22. Sometimes the speaker employs combinations of words to make the
information clear:
noun + noun
boyfriend – girlfriend buck-rabbit – doe-rabbit
doctor – lady doctor turkey-cock – turkey-hen
student – woman student
adjective + noun
frog – female frog nurse – male nurse
personal pronoun + noun
she-bear – he-bear
name + noun
billy-goat – nanny-goat
23. TO THE GENDER CLASS OF HIGHER
ORGANISMS BELONG NOUNS DENOTING:
a. names of countries
countries are usually treated as inanimate nouns:
Belgium is a small country, but it is thickly populated.
If the country is referred to as a political, cultural or
economic power, it can be substituted with the
personal pronoun she:
Germany managed to stabilize her economy in a
comparatively short period of time.
When the name of the country is used to refer to a
sports team, it is treated as a collective improper
noun and is substituted with they:
Italy can be proud of their success.
24. B. NAMES OF VESSELS, MACHINERY OR
TOYS
they are usually treated as inanimate nouns:
We were watching a ship in the distance. It
was rolling sluggishly from side to side.
some speakers substitute such nouns with
personal pronouns referring to human
beings. This is due to some personal
involvement of the speaker with the noun
referent:
Have you seen my sloop, which is in the
dock? Isn’t she a beauty?
This phenomenon borders on
personification.
25. PERSONIFICATION
showing particular qualities, emotions or the
elements of Nature in the form of a person
When the qualities embodied are positive, the noun
is treated as feminine:
Mary Ann has heard a lot about Nature. She is a kind of very
powerful invisible fairly godmother, who is in charge of everything
that happens in the world that’s not because of people or machines.
(A. Lurie)
When the qualities embodied are negative, the
noun is treated as masculine: Death
26. GENDER BIAS IN THE USE OF GENDER
SENSITIVE PRONOUNS
The masculine pronouns he, him, his are not
preferred nowadays to refer to an unspecified or
hypothetical individual.
To avoid gender bias, English speakers tend to
use the group of pronouns he or she when
substituting nouns of common gender in formal
speech:
Tell the next person who calls that he or she can
make an appointment.
In spoken English they is used to refer back to an
unspecified person:
What happens if someone changes their mind?
