Learn English Language: Lesson 21 - 25

Chapter 02

Inflections of Nouns – Gender

Lesson 21: What gender means in English - It is founded on sex

In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine. There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are, in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.

When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words. For instance: in Latin, hortus (garden) is masculine, mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.

The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if of the female sex, the name of it is feminine.

Lesson 22

Gender is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.

Lesson 23: Definition

It is evident from this that English can have but two genders,—masculine and feminine.

All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—gender nouns, those distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.

Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.

Lesson 24: Some words either gender or neuter nouns, according to use

Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the word child is neuter in the sentence, "A little childshall lead them," but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth,

• I have seen
  A curious child ... applying to his ear
  The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.

Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:

• Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, ... clapping his burnished wings.
• Gunpowder ... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head

Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.

• Not a turkey but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing.
• He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life init.

Lesson 25: No “common” gender

According to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.

If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.

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