Introduction
1 General characteristics of the category of gender of nouns in English
2 Ways to express gender in animate nouns in English
3 Ways to express gender in inanimate nouns in English
Methods for translating nouns marked by gender from English into Russian
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
The grammatical category, as a rule, is a unique reflection of the phenomena of the existing world, the category of number reflects quantitative relations, the category of time reflects the action relative to the moment of speech, etc. But there are also categories that are not based on phenomena of the objective world. So, for example, the category of gender in those languages where it exists has a purely syntactic function of organizing word combinations through agreement. It has no real logical basis (probably, this is due to the difference in gender of a particular noun in different languages).
However, the historical development of the morphological structure of the English language has led to the fact that the category of grammatical gender, devoid of morphological means of expression, ceased to exist. But at the same time, as a consequence of the Old English language system, in modern English ships, yachts and other vessels are classified as feminine. Moreover, in spoken English, informal style, animals also acquire the category of genus. Inconsistencies in grammatical gender lead to the need translation transformations.
Currently, research in the field of language and communication attracts the attention of a significant number of researchers. A new direction is being formed in Russian linguistics - gender linguistics, which, on the one hand, studies the prototypes of masculinity and femininity recorded in language; and on the other hand, the characteristics of the speech behavior of men and women.
Ideas about masculine and feminine are manifested in different levels language system, including in the grammatical category of gender. The category of gender is based on an extralinguistic reality—the existence of people of different sexes with their accompanying gender meanings. Changes of an extralinguistic nature: women's emancipation, redistribution of male and female roles in society cause changes in prototypes and, accordingly, are reflected in the language.
.1 General characteristics of the category of gender of nouns in English
The noun in Old English had the categories of person, number, case, animate and inanimate, as well as a clear grammatical category of gender. There were 3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, which differed not in the design of the noun itself, but in the forms of adjectives and pronouns consistent with it. In the plural, gender was not specified.
The grammatical gender could coincide with the real one, for example, the word modor “mother” was feminine. Sometimes they were opposite: wifman “woman” is masculine. Thus, the category of genus is already in ancient period was not stable enough, did not reflect real phenomena in language and carried a pronounced tendency towards complete degeneration.
Masculine nouns accounted for about 45%, feminine nouns - 30%, neuter nouns, respectively, about 25%.
The principles of distribution by gender were unclear even in the era of the first written monuments that reached us. However, there are certain groups of concepts:
the masculine gender included concepts associated with war and hunting (secg “sword”), as well as trade and administration (ceap market"), many words associated with the water element (burna Creek"). Also, the masculine gender was most often associated with the concepts of strength, power, fear (ellen “courage”).
words denoting living nature (ac “oak”) belonged to the feminine gender.
the neuter gender included young animals and children (cealf “calf”). Rather, this reflects the active/inactive classification. This also included concepts of the water element and abstract nouns.
As far as gender indications are concerned, the masculine and neuter gender paradigms often coincided. The main opposition was observed in the paradigms of masculinity and female. The feminine gender, thus, seemed to stand out as a separate class, opposed to the masculine and neuter classes.
The Middle English period is characterized as a period of weakened endings; in all genders and cases the endings became the same. The role of the case system began to be played by prepositions and word order.
It was during the Middle English period that active borrowing of feminine nouns began, mainly from French. The suffixes of these borrowed words have become productive word-forming suffixes in the English language. Feminine, having received additional ways markings, moved into the opposition “masculine gender - feminine gender”.
Today, borrowed feminine nouns make up 30% of all feminine nouns in the English language. Of these, 21% are from French. The original nouns that have come down to us make up only 10%.
As for modern language, the masculine and feminine gender (with rare exceptions) refers only to nouns that carry the concept “person”, and the neuter gender to all others.
The category of gender in modern English is one of the most controversial issues in grammar. The vast majority of linguists are of the view that this category existed only in the Old English period. It is believed that since formal indicators of gender for nouns disappeared towards the end of the Middle English period and the noun no longer agrees with its adjoining adjectives and verbs, the category of gender no longer exists in English. In Old English, as now in Russian and German, nouns, as already said, belonged to the masculine, feminine and neuter gender.
Thus, M.A. Kolpakchi gives the following examples from Old English:
mona- moon, steorra- star - were masculine,
bricg- bridge, tigol -brick - feminine,
scip- ship, age- eye - neuter.
It happened that grammatical gender was in conflict with real gender: wlf- woman and mægden- girl, were neuter words in Old English.
As for the modern stage of the English language, there are currently several points of view in scientific circles regarding the presence or absence of the category of gender in the English language:
o The first point of view, which many researchers adhere to, states that there is no category of gender in modern English as such.
o The second point of view recognizes the presence of the category of gender in the English language, but not at the grammatical level, but only at the semantic level (i.e. it is only implied by the speaker).
o And finally, the third point of view says that the category of gender in the English language is still grammatical, but in the process of the historical development of the language it was noticeably reduced.
In some languages, gender is expressed through inflection (Russian), in some - through the article (der, die, das - German). However, these rules do not apply in analytical languages. The only reliable criterion for generic characteristics is agreement. It is necessary to clarify that the function of gender indication is most often performed by third person singular pronouns, even in the absence of other gender indicators.
Functional purpose The generic classification of nouns is a clarification of the properties attributed to objects and phenomena of reality. In other words, attributing certain generic characteristics to a noun is intended to convey some additional information about it, serving as a background feature and highlighted on the basis of the referent’s belonging to a certain generic class. The uniqueness of the principles of gender distribution in different languages and the peculiar “heredity” in the attribution of certain generic properties to nouns within each individual language indicate that the category of gender is a unique reflection of the generalized cultural experience of previous generations. Differences in gender distribution between different languages indicate different attitudes to the same concepts among different cultures. For example, the sun is neuter and die Sonne (German) is feminine.
The category of gender of nouns finally disappeared among many grammatical simplifications in the language of the second half of the 17th century. The masculine gender was retained only by men, the feminine gender by women, and all concepts and objects and even animals began to be considered nouns of the neuter gender, which is conveyed by the pronoun it.
A strong member of the opposition “male - female” is the feminine gender: girl, mother, lady. The masculine gender is correspondingly weak. Therefore, it is neutralized. Man is no longer just a man, it is a person as a whole. The pronoun he is used in the same way. This is precisely what causes such violent indignation among feminist adherents.
The lexical ways of expressing gender in modern English are much richer than is commonly believed.
In addition, in the English language there is a group of nouns that, depending on the context, can denote either men or women, and can be replaced either by the pronoun he or - she, for example: president, professor, friend, etc. Such nouns are allocated to a special group - common nouns. For them, the category of genus is the category of a variable characteristic.
Thus, the historical development of the morphological structure of the English language has led to the fact that the category of grammatical gender has been significantly modified.
In the process of linguistic evolution, the differences between female and male speech strategies were constantly examined from different positions, the conceptual and semantic parameters of generic universals in language were contrasted, and the prospects for linguistic normalization of speech traditions in marking the gender of linguistic units were discussed.
.2 Ways to express gender in animate nouns in English
There are several ways to express gender for animate nouns in English.
Derivatives female forms today are marked with a suffix or some other morphological or lexical feature that distinguishes the feminine from the general gender. and in some cases partially duplicates the form of the original masculine gender. For example, man - woman.
1 . Firstly, one of the options for displaying gender may be to use the corresponding noun belonging to one gender or another.
For example:
boy - girl (boy - girl)
husband - wife (husband - wife) - mother (father - mother) - sister (brother - sister) - daughter (son - daughter) - mare (horse - mare) - nun (monk - nun) - queen (king - queen) - hen (rooster - hen) - duck (drake - duck) - lady (gentleman - lady) - niece (nephew - niece) - aunt (uncle - aunt)
And in some cases, the feminine form partially duplicates the form of the original masculine gender. For example, man - woman.
2 . A special place in the creation of a gender module is occupied by markers of the feminine gender of English nouns, denoting people in their sphere professional activity. First of all, in this subgroup it is necessary to note the traditional suffixes that form nouns of the corresponding semantics: -ess, -ette, -ine.
For example:
author - authoress (writer - writer) - baroness (baron - baroness) - countess (count - countess) - giantess (giant (masculine) - giant (feminine)) - heiress (heir - heiress) - lioness (lion - lioness ) - poetess (poet - poetess)
In the British version, the normative use allows for hostess, waitress, governess, stewardess and others.
3. Also, feminine nouns can be formed by replacing the suffix ( -or, -er, etc.) in a masculine noun, with a corresponding feminine suffix.
For example:
actor-actr ess(actor - actress) - enchantr ess(wizard - sorceress) - duch ess(duke - duchess) - empr ess(emperor - empress) - princ ess(prince - princess) - tigr ess(tiger - tigress) - waitr ess(waiter - waitress)
master - master ess(master - hostess) - sorcer ess(sorcerer - sorceress)
4. A feminine noun in some cases can also be obtained replacing the masculine gender marker in a word with the corresponding feminine gender marker (in compound nouns):
grandfather-grand mother(grandfather grandmother)- maidservant (servant - maid)
landlord - land lady(landlord of furnished rooms - landlady of furnished rooms) - pea hen(peacock - peahen) - sales woman(seller - saleswoman)
5 . The need to clarify gender affiliation in the context of works of art or in oral communication expands the gender range due to the parallel coexistence of forms.
For example:
woman doctor - doctor (woman)
she-doctor - doctor (woman)
doctress - doctor (female)
The expansion of the professional range for female representatives contributed to the emergence of nouns with the suffix - ette:
For example:
Astronette - female astronaut
Cosmonette - female astronaut
Aviarette - pilot
Farmarette - farmer
pickette - protest picket participant
copette - policewoman
Similar formations are registered among nominations in the field of show business:
For example:
Usherette - usherette
It is also worth highlighting a group of nouns belonging to the so-called common gender; nouns belonging to the general gender carry the concept of an animate object, but do not distinguish gender coloring. That is, similar nouns, depending on the context, can denote an object, classifying it as masculine or feminine.
For example:- teacher/the teacherentered the class-room, we greeted her.
1.3 Ways to express gender for inanimate nouns in English
noun gender English
Just as there are exceptions to all rules, so in the matter of the gender composition of the English language there are situations when it is necessary to proceed not from general rules and logical analysis, but by analogy with already established linguistic forms of expression associated with cultural and historical development language and its speakers.
So, for example, oddly enough, in English, in addition to inanimate objects, the neuter gender also includes animals and children under one year of age. As for classifying children under one year of age as neuter, there is an assumption regarding this fact proposed by N.A. Grishina, which explains such a well-established use. She states the following: Nouns are divided into active and inactive, i.e. a small child (a baby) is motionless without the help of adults and, accordingly, inactive, so this word belongs to the neuter gender.
In Russian there is a word "child", which is similar to the English word (Baby) - it is also neuter, and is applied to children of both sexes. And the masculine words "baby" and "child" also apply to children of both sexes.
Every language has its own quirks. But these oddities are usually visible to foreigners studying this language. It always seems to a person that in his native language everything is simple, clear and very logical. In fact, this is not true.
An interesting fact should also be recognized that people are not inclined to classify all animals as neuter. People proudly name their pets by gender. Or wild animals, in those cases it is necessary to know their gender. Accordingly, the cat will be “she” - she, and the cat - “he” - he.
Moreover, there are also reverse exceptions, since some inanimate objects, in stylistically colored or emotional speech, can be spiritualized and replaced by the pronouns he or she. Such words include entire groups of nouns, such as the names of ships, countries, cars, etc.; Such nouns, of course, do not have a gender marker, but for some reason they are almost always replaced with the pronoun she.
) Correlation with the feminine gender of various types of ships. He only noticed how well the skiff sailed… she's good, he thought
According to I.E. Lalayants, the feminine gender of nouns denoting ships can probably be explained by the fact that the word “ship” comes from the Scandinavian “cipam”, which meant something associated with the female womb. According to ancient belief, placing a dead Viking in a boat meant rebirth in the womb.
) Another tradition is the feminine gender for names of countries used not as a geographical, but as a political-economic unit, and also in mythological and poetic contexts. Greece surpasses mankind in her exalted concepts…
) Another group is nouns denoting various means movement. getting of the car… he said… Fill her up, please . Some researchers note the fact that if the owner of the car is a woman, she can talk about it in the masculine gender.
) The names of ancient cities and city-states are also included in a separate class. In ancient times, cities were often given the names of goddesses (Athena); they were considered the patroness and founders of these cities. Bursley was to lose her identity Babylon, mother of all sins
5) The nouns nature, earth, world are often associated with the feminine gender. Nature seemed to hold her breath
The names of other sciences are also often associated with the feminine gender of science. "The sweet nymph Algebra"
In fairy tales and poetic texts, weak creatures appear as feminine, like she, and strong or sinister creatures - in the masculine gender, like he, for example: Death is the only freedom I will know. I hear his black wings beating about me!
S. D. Katsnelson argued that the generic characteristic of an inanimate object is an example of creating a stylistic effect. Any item belonging to someone can be named using the feminine gender to emphasize the special value of this item for specific person. My lady guitar
2. Methods of translating nouns marked by gender from English into Russian
When considering ways of translating nouns marked by gender, it would be more appropriate to highlight four aspects for consideration:
Masculine nouns
Feminine nouns Animate nouns
Common nouns
Neuter nouns Inanimate nouns
Male and female genders
Masculine and feminine genders in the English language, in the vast majority of cases, are inherent only to animate nouns. Both genders are absolutely logically distributed in English relative to animate nouns according to gender (as in Russian).
And here there are no problems when translating these nouns from English into Russian, since in this case the original gender is preserved during translation.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A man (m. b.) - man / He (m. b.)
A woman (female born) - woman / She (female born)
A boy (m. b.) - boy / He (m. b.)
A girl (female born) - girl / She (female born)
A salesman (m. b.) - seller / He (m. b.) saleswoman (f. b.) - saleswoman / She (f. b.)
Examples from fiction: (“Treasure Island”, “Treasure Island”)
“And now that's done,” said the blind man ; and at the words he suddenly left hold of me, and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of the parlour and into the road, where, as I still stood motionless I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance..." (original)
“The job is done,” said blind . With these words He He let me go and, with agility unexpected in a cripple, jumped out of the common room onto the road. I still stood motionless, listening to the retreating sound of his stick...” (translation)
"Draw down the blind, Jim," my whispered mother ; “they might come and watch outside. And now," said she when I had done so, “we have to get the key off THAT; and who "s to touch it, I should like to know!" and she gave a kind of sob as she said the words.” (original)
“Draw the curtains, Jim,” she whispered mother . “They can watch us through the window... And now,” she said she , when I lowered the curtains, I need to find the key to the chest... But I would like to know who would dare to touch it...” (translation)
As can be seen from the examples, in most cases, when translating animate masculine or feminine nouns into Russian, there is no need for translation transformations, since the initial and final genders of a given noun will be identical.
Common gender
As for the general gender in English, some difficulties may arise when translating into Russian, since a noun of the general gender can imply either a man or a woman.
In this situation, to determine the gender in which the final word will appear, it is necessary to be guided by the context in which this word is used.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A teacher (general r.) - teacher (m. r.) / teacher (f. r.)
A pupil (gen. r.) - student (m. r.) / student (f. r.)
A friend (gen. r.) - friend (m. r.) / girlfriend (f. r.)
A neighbor (general r.) - neighbor (m. r.) / neighbor (f. r.)our teacher came in she saw us throwing bags.
When teacher entered the classroom she I saw that we were throwing bags.
Example from fiction: (“Treasure Island”, “Treasure Island”)
“Perhaps you should,” replied the doctor. "My friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with him ; but the slight, if there be one, was unintentional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow? (original)
“I don’t argue,” answered the doctor. - To my friend , perhaps, we should have recruited a team with you. This mistake, I assure you, is completely accidental. There was nothing intentional here. Then you don’t seem to like Mr. Arrow?” (translation)
In addition, in the English language there are such nouns of a general gender that are translated into Russian as nouns of a general gender that do not require determination of gender.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
An upstart (gen. r.) - upstart (general r.)
A judge (gen. r.) - judge (general r.) crybaby (general r.) - crybaby (general r.) glutton (general r.) - glutton (general r.)
Neuter gender
As we know, the neuter gender in English refers to inanimate objects, natural phenomena, as well as children under one year old and animals. Most nouns that are neuter in English are translated into Russian as masculine or feminine nouns.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A stone (w.r.) - stone (m.r.)
A spoon (wed. r.) - spoon (f. r.) (wed. r.) - wind (m. r.)
A bird (w.r.) - bird (f.r.)
But there are also nouns that are neuter in both English and Russian. But the problem here is that it is impossible to identify specific thematic groups to which these words belong.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A window (average) - window (average)
Milk (average) - milk (average)
A photo (average) - photo (average) heart (average) - heart (average) face (average) - face (average) Sun (average) r.) - sun (average r.) plant (average r.) - plant (average r.)
To this day, linguists have not stopped trying to explain the relationship of generic categories to objects of the surrounding reality. Many domestic and foreign linguists paid attention to the problem of the category of gender: O. Espersen, I. A. Baudouin-de-Courtenay, E. Prokosh, N. Ya. Nemirovsky, V. V. Ioffe, I. P. Muchnik, L. Elmslev , A. A. Zaliznyak, A. M. Peshkovsky, E. K. Kurilovich, A. B. Kopeliovich, G. G. Corbett, I. G. Koshevaya, I. U. Kobov, A. Mirtov, A. V Bondarko, A. I. Thomson, Ya. I. Gin, M. Osman, I. Fodor, J. Lyons, A. Curzan, M. H. Ibrahim, J. J. A. Van Berkum and others. The genesis of the generic category was studied, its formal syntactic properties were studied. characteristics. However, the essence of the category of gender, its diversity and semantics at the present stage of development of linguistics is not yet sufficiently covered in the linguistic literature.
Conclusion
In this work, a clear analysis of gender in the English language was carried out, which made it possible to draw the desired conclusions:
)IN singular the structure of the clan is manifested by personal opposition.
)The main exponents of gender characteristics are personal pronouns of the third person singular.
)The feminine gender has many variations in formation and usage.
) Currently, certain changes are taking place in the system of gender expression, reflecting the social restructuring of society.
Bibliography
1.Kolpakchi M.A. Friendly meetings with English. - L., 1978.
2.Rivlina A.A. Theoretical grammar of the English language. - BSPU, 2009.
.Arakin V.D. Comparative typology of English and Russian languages. - M.: Education, 1989.- 108 p.
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Gender- Genus
Masculine gender - Masculine
Feminine gender - Feminine
Neuter gender - Neuter gender
English gender is the most contested grammatical noun category among linguists. There is no formal gender in English. It is believed that the category of gender in English completely disappeared by the end of the Middle English period (mid-11th - late 15th centuries). There is not such an abundance of rules as in the Russian language. Almost all gender differentiation comes down to the designation of biological sex by lexical and word-formation means.
However, there are some rules regarding the gender of English nouns:
1. Animate nouns (in this context this concept refers only to a person) have a feminine or masculine gender depending on their gender and can be replaced by the personal pronouns he/she.His father is a builder. His father is a builder.
He is a builder. He is a builder.
2. Animal names are neuter and can be replaced by the pronoun it. Only in cases where it is necessary to clarify the gender of the animal, the pronouns he/she are used.
A mouse is in my room. There is a mouse in my room.
It is in my room. She's in my room.
My friend has got a dog. My friend has a dog.
His nickname is Barbos. His nickname is Barbos.
3. All inanimate nouns are neuter and can be replaced by the pronoun it, except for the names of vehicles such as:
ship ship, vessel
boat boat, ship
car car, automobile
They are usually feminine and are replaced by the pronoun she.
4. A number of nouns form the feminine gender by adding the masculine gender to the word:
A. Endings -ess
host - hostess
tiger - tigress tiger - tigress
actor - actress
b. One more word
cat - lady-cat cat - cat
goat - nanny-goat goat - goat
A noun is an important part of speech that denotes an object or person. As in Russian, nouns in English answer the questions who? what? (who what?). Without this part of speech it is impossible to imagine any sentence, because the noun, one might say, along with the predicate, is the basis of any sentence.
What kind of nouns are there?
Nouns in English can mean completely different concepts:
- Living beings, people, positions of people: cat (cat), postman (postman), girl (girl), dog (dog).
- Things, food and objects: pen (pen), house (house), book (book), apple (apple).
- Various materials, minerals, resources: gold (gold), cotton (cotton), water (water).
- Processes, actions, emotions, states: growing (growth), running (running), laughter (laughter), tears (tears), sleep (sleep).
- Places, geographical points, cities: Saint Petersburg (St. Petersburg), forest (forest), land (land), Korea (Korea).
- Qualities of people: bravery (courage), tenderness (tenderness).
- Various abstract concepts: happiness, evil.
- Proper nouns (names of mountains, seas, holidays, names, etc.): Hollywood (Hollywood), the New Year ( New Year), Adam (Adam), the Earth (Earth, planet Earth).
Gender in English
In our Russian language, nouns are divided by gender. But in English there is also a similar classification.
The masculine gender in English has the following name: masculine. Let us give an example of some masculine nouns: they denote animate male beings:
- boy - boy;
- postman - postman;
- uncle - uncle.
Feminine nouns in English denote animate female beings and are called: feminine. Here are examples of feminine nouns:
- bride - bride;
- mother - mother.
The neuter gender is all inanimate objects, as well as some animals. In English it has the name: neuter.
- room - room;
- bird - bird;
- fork - fork;
- window - window.
But sometimes it happens that belonging to the feminine gender can be determined by such suffixes as -ine, -ette, -ess:
- heroine - heroine;
- cigarette - cigarette;
- hostess - hostess.
In English, the gender of a person or animal can be indicated by adding a variety of indicator words to the noun, such as he, she, boy, girl, male, female and others:
- men-writer - writer (male writer);
- woman-actor - actress (female actor);
- boy-student - student (boy student).
Uncountable, countable nouns
As in our native language, in English there are objects that can be counted: five spoons, two chairs, four boxes. But there are also nouns that are impossible to count, because they either denote abstract concepts or some material object: sugar, happiness, laughter.
- Countable nouns in English include things, objects, people, things that can be counted: a cup (mug), a spoon (spoon), a boy (boy), a bird (bird), a tree (tree). As you noticed, countable nouns always use an article.
- Uncountable nouns impossible to count: hair (hair), information (information), sugar (sugar), weather (weather), happiness (happiness), news (news). Most often these are abstract concepts, real nouns or plural nouns.
Number of nouns in English
How is the plural of a noun formed in this language? This is easy to do: you just need to add the plural ending -s:
- a room (room) - rooms (rooms);
- a bag (bag) - baggs (bags);
- a fork (fork) - forks (forks);
- a page (page) - pages (pages);
- a frog (frog) - a frogs (frogs).
There are also nouns whose plurals vary slightly differently or do not exist at all. There are also words that are already plural and do not have a singular number.
Exceptions
To remember the following words as much as possible, we recommend doing various exercises. English nouns that are exceptions:
- man (man) - men (men);
- woman (woman) - women (woman);
- mouse (mouse) - mice (mice);
- tooth (tooth) - teeth (teeth);
- foot (leg, foot) - feet (legs, feet);
- goose (goose) - geese (geese);
- swine (pig) - swine (pigs);
- child (child) - children (children);
- deer (deer) - deer (deer).
Some rules of education
There are also a few more rules that you just need to remember.
For nouns ending in f or -fe, the plural ending is -ves. Here are some examples:
- knife (knife) - knives (knives);
- leaf (leaf, leaf) - leaves (leaves).
A singular noun ending in -o adds the ending -s in the plural:
- radio (radio) - radios (radio in plural).
However, if there is another vowel before the ending -o, the ending -es is added to form the plural:
- potato (potatoes) - potatoes (potatoes).
A word that ends in -y after a consonant changes this letter to the letter -i, and only then the ending -es is added:
- family (family) - families (families);
- fly (fly) - flies (flies).
However, if there is another vowel before the ending -y, this rule will not work:
- monkey (key) - monkeys (keys).
Nouns that do not have a singular number
There are quite a lot of words in the Russian language that have only a plural form. They often represent paired objects. And among the English plural nouns there are those that do not have a singular word at all:
- scissors - scissors;
- trousers - trousers, trousers;
- customs - customs;
- scales scales;
- riches - wealth;
- goods - goods, goods;
- glasses - glasses;
- contents - content, content;
- clothes - clothes;
- wages - wages.
There is also a special noun - people, which is translated into our Russian language as “people” or “people”. IN different cases it can be either plural or singular.
- In the case when it is spoken generally about “people”, it has a plural form: There are a lot of people (There are a lot of people here).
- But if we mean “the people,” a general group of people, then the noun has a singular or plural form: We should help people of every nationality, gender and religion (We should help people of every nationality, gender and religion).
There is no grammatical category of gender, that is, changes in the composition of a sentence associated with the gender of a noun, in the English language. This means that it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a waiter or a waitress, both will still be very polite.
In Russian, for comparison, there is a grammatical category of gender: the waitress is polite, and the waiter is polite.
Gender in English is manifested only through nouns and pronouns:
- Personal pronouns he (he, masculine), she (she, feminine), it (it, neuter);
- Reflexive pronouns: his (his, masculine), her (her, feminine), himself (himself, by himself), herself (herself, herself), herself;
- Noun suffixes: poetESS (poetess);
- Nouns that have meaning and clearly indicate gender: boy (boy, masculine), girl (girl, feminine), bag (bag, neuter);
- Additional noun-determiners indicating gender: woman-cosmonaut (female astronaut, feminine gender);
- Names of professions: milkman (milkman, masculine), milkmaid (thrush, feminine).
This girl is my friend. She is cute (This girl is my friend. She is cute).
This boy is my friend. He is cute (This boy is my friend. He is cute).
The neuter gender includes almost all inanimate objects, as well as plants, birds and animals. The exception is pets.
The logic here is this: if some creature or object seems to you to be animate, that is, literally having a soul, capable of experiencing, feeling, you can “give” it a masculine or feminine pronoun depending on its gender. That is, English speakers will call a cow being prepared for slaughter it, and their favorite cat Snowflake will be called she.
In addition to domestic animals, the exception when choosing a gender is apparently made by favorite vehicles: ship (ship), boat (boat), car (car), - and are usually replaced by the pronoun she, that is, she.
My car is under repair. I broke her (My car is being repaired. I broke it)
Also an exception is a number of geographical names. Typically, the names of countries, as inanimate objects, will be replaced by the pronoun it. But if we are talking about a country as a state that has its own political and economic characteristics, culture and traditions, it is appropriate to say she.
Russia has decided to boost her low birthrates (Russia has decided to increase its birth rate).
Exceptions also include objects and phenomena that previously served as objects of cult. For example, Earth, nature, fertility, war.
The Earth took pity on us. She brought us forth fruits (The earth took pity on us. She bore fruits).
The war was brutal. He took many lives (The war was cruel. It (literally) took many lives).
Many words in the English language are called unmarked, that is, having no category of gender at all, neutral - without additional clarification, it is impossible to understand whether we are talking about men or women. Such words include, for example, names of kinship (parent, sibling, cousin, infant, baby, child, kid), names of animals and birds (duck, goose, fox, rabbit, goat, cat, dog), names of professions (doctor, driver, teacher, pilot, shop-assistant, journalist) and others.
However, due to the desire for gender equality, not only social orders are changing, but also language. Thus, some modern dictionary entries contain a note at GENDER link (see the GENDER article). The corresponding article contains the following remark: “When you are writing or speaking English it is important to use language that includes both men women equally. Some people may be very offended if you do not. Further, the recommendation for gender-correct language use notes: The suffix -ess in names of occupations such as actress, hostess and waitress shows that the person doing the job is a woman. Many people now avoid these. Instead you can use actor or host (although actress and hostess are still very common) or a neutral word, such as server for waiter and waitress" (When you write or speak English, it is important to use word forms that apply to both men , and in relation to women. Otherwise, it may offend someone. Instead of words indicating a person’s gender, for example, “actress” and “waitress,” use neutral words “actor” and “waiter”).