Introduction
1 General characteristics of the category of gender of nouns in English
2 Ways of expressing gender in animate nouns in English
3 Ways of expressing gender in inanimate nouns in English
Methods for translating gender-marked nouns from English into Russian
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
The grammatical category, as a rule, is a kind of 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 the phenomena of the objective world. So, for example, the category of gender in those languages where it is, carries a purely syntactic function of organizing word combinations by means of agreement. It has no real logical grounds (probably, this is the reason for the difference in the genus of one or another noun in different languages).
However, the historical development of the morphological structure of the English language 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 belong to the female gender. Moreover, in colloquial 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 circle of researchers. In Russian linguistics, a new direction is being formed - gender linguistics, which, on the one hand, studies the prototypes of masculinity and femininity recorded in the language; and on the other hand, the features of the speech behavior of men and women.
The ideas of masculine and feminine are manifested in different levels language system, including in the grammatical category of gender. The genus category is based on an extralinguistic given - the existence of people of different sexes with accompanying gender meanings. Extralinguistic changes: female 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 that were consistent with it. The gender was not defined in the plural.
The grammatical gender could coincide with the real one, for example, the word modor "mother" - referred to the female gender. Sometimes they were opposite: wifman "woman" - masculine. Thus, the category of genus is already in ancient period was not stable enough, did not reflect real phenomena in the language and carried a pronounced tendency towards complete degeneration.
Masculine nouns accounted for about 45%, feminine nouns - 30%, average nouns, respectively, about 25%.
The principles of distribution by genus were unclear already in the era of the first written monuments that have come down to us. However, there are certain groups of concepts:
the masculine gender included concepts related to war and hunting (secg "sword"), as well as trade and government (ceap market "), many words associated with the water element (burna Creek"). Also, the masculine gender most often correlated with the concepts of strength, power, fear (ellen "courage").
the feminine gender was the word for wildlife (ac “oak”).
young animals and children (cealf "calf") belonged to the middle genus. Rather, it reflects the classification of active / inactive. Also included were the concepts of water and abstract nouns.
As for genus indication, the paradigms of the masculine and neuter genders often coincided. The main opposition was observed in the paradigms of male 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. Prepositions and word order began to play the role of the case system.
It was in the Middle English period that the active borrowing of feminine nouns began, mainly from French... The suffixes of these borrowed words have moved into the category of productive derivational suffixes of the English language. Feminine, having received additional ways marking, moved into opposition "masculine - feminine".
Today, borrowed feminine nouns make up 30% of all feminine nouns in English. Of these, 21% are from French. The original nouns that have come down to us account for only 10%.
As for the modern language, the masculine and feminine gender (with rare exceptions) refers only to nouns that carry the concept of "man", and the neuter gender - to everyone else.
The gender category in modern English is one of the most controversial issues in grammar. The overwhelming majority of linguists are of the opinion that this category existed only in the Old English period. It is believed that since the formal indicators of the gender of nouns disappeared by the end of the Middle English period and the noun is no longer consistent with adjacent adjectives and verbs, the category of gender in English no longer exists. In Old English, as now in Russian and German, nouns, as already mentioned, belonged to the masculine, feminine and neuter gender.
So, M.A. Kolpakchi gives such examples from Old English:
mona- moon, steorra- star - were masculine,
bricg- bridge, tigol -brick - feminine,
scip- ship, eage- the eye is of the neuter gender.
It happened that the grammatical gender was in conflict with the real gender: wlf- woman and mægden- girl, were neuter words in Old English.
As for the modern stage of the English language, at present in scientific circles there are several points of view regarding the presence or absence of a gender category in English:
o The first point of view, which many researchers adhere to, is that there is no category of gender in modern English as such.
o The second point of view recognizes the presence of a gender category in the English language, but not at the grammatical level, but only at the semantic level (that is, it is only implied by the speaker).
o And finally, the third point of view states that the category of gender in English is still grammatical, but in the process of the historical development of the language it has noticeably reduced.
In some languages, the genus 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 genetics is most often performed by the pronouns of the third person singular, even in the absence of other genetics.
Functional purpose generic classification of nouns is to clarify the properties attributed to objects and phenomena of reality. In other words, the assignment of certain generic characteristics to a noun is intended to inform about it any additional information that serves as a background feature and is highlighted on the basis of the referent's belonging to a certain generic class. The uniqueness of the principles of genus distribution in different languages and a kind of "heredity" in attributing certain generic properties to nouns within each individual language indicate that the category of genus is a kind of reflection of the generalized cultural experience of previous generations. Differences in genus distribution between different languages indicate different attitudes towards the same concepts in different cultures. For example, the sun is neuter and die Sonne (German) is feminine.
The gender category of nouns finally disappeared among many grammatical simplifications in the language of the second half of the 17th century. The masculine gender remained only for men, the feminine for women, and all concepts and objects and even animals began to be considered nouns of the neuter gender, which is transmitted by the pronoun it.
A strong member of the masculine-feminine opposition is the feminine gender: girl, mother, lady. The masculine gender is correspondingly weak. Therefore, it is neutralized. Man is no longer only a man, it is a person as a whole. The pronoun he is used in the same way. This is what causes such violent indignation of the adherents of feminism.
The lexical ways of expressing gender in modern English are much richer than is commonly believed.
In addition, in English there is a group of nouns that, depending on the context, can denote either men or women, and can be replaced by either the pronoun he or -she, for example: president, professor, friend, etc. Such nouns stand out in a special group - general nouns... For them, the gender category is the category of a variable attribute.
Thus, the historical development of the morphological structure of the English language led to the fact that the category of grammatical gender was significantly modified.
In the process of linguistic evolution, the differences between female and male speech strategies were constantly considered from different positions, the conceptual and semantic parameters of generic universals in the language were opposed, the prospects for linguistic standardization of speech traditions in marking the genus of linguistic units were discussed.
.2 Ways of Expressing Gender in Animated Nouns in English
There are several ways to express gender in animate nouns in English.
Derivatives female forms today they are marked with a suffix or some other morphological or lexical feature that distinguishes the feminine gender from the general. and in some cases partially duplicates the form of the original masculine gender. For example, man is woman.
1 ... First, one of the options for displaying a genus may be the use of an appropriate noun related to a particular genus.
For example:
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 - chicken) - duck (drake - duck) - lady (gentleman - lady) - niece (nephew - niece) - aunt (uncle - aunt)
And in some cases, the feminine form partially duplicates the original masculine form. For example, man is woman.
2 ... A special place in the creation of the 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 should be noted 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, the 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 - mistr ess(host - hostess) - sorcer ess(sorcerer - sorceress)
4. The feminine noun in some cases can also be obtained replacing the masculine marker in the word with the corresponding feminine marker (in compound nouns):
grandfather - grand mother(grandfather grandmother)- maidservant (servant - maid)
landlord - land lady(the owner of the furnished rooms - the owner of the furnished rooms) - pea hen(peacock - pava) - sales woman(seller - saleswoman)
5 ... The need to clarify the genus 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 (woman)
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 - woman astronaut
Aviarette - pilot
Farmarette - farmer
pickette - participant in a picketing protest
copette - policewoman
Similar formations are registered among the nominations in the field of show business:
For example:
Usherette - usherette
You should also highlight a group of nouns related to the so-called common gender; nouns belonging to a common gender carry the concept of an animate object, but do not distinguish between generic coloration. That is, such nouns, depending on the context, can denote an object, referring it to the masculine or feminine gender.
For example: - teacher / the teacherentered the class-room, we greeted her.
1.3 Ways of expressing gender in inanimate nouns in English
noun gender English
As there are exceptions to all the rules, there are situations in the issue of the gender composition of the English language when it is necessary to proceed not from general rules and logical analysis, but by analogy with the already established linguistic forms of expression associated with cultural and historical development language and its speakers.
So, for example, oddly enough, in the English language, in addition to inanimate objects, animals and children under one year old are also referred to the middle genus. As for the attribution of children under one year old to the middle birth, then according to this fact there is an assumption proposed by N.A. Grishina, explaining such a well-established use. She states the following: Nouns are divided into active and inactive, i.e. a small child (a baby) is immobile without the help of adults and, accordingly, is inactive, therefore this word refers to the middle genus.
In the Russian language there is the 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 "infant" and "child" also apply to children of both sexes.
Each language has its own oddities. 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 the case.
An interesting fact should also be recognized that, nevertheless, not all animals are inclined to be attributed to the middle genus. People proudly name their pets by gender. Or wild animals, in which case it is necessary to know their gender. Accordingly, the cat will be "she" - she, and the cat - "he" - he.
Moreover, there are reverse exceptions, since some inanimate objects, in stylistically colored or emotional speech, can be spiritualized and replaced by the pronouns he or she. These words include whole groups of nouns, such as the names of ships, countries, cars, etc .; such nouns, of course, do not have a generic character, but for some reason they are almost always replaced by the pronoun she.
) Correlation with the feminine gender of various types of courts. He only noticed, how well the skiff sailed ... shes good, he thought
According to I.E. Lalayants, the feminine gender of nouns denoting courts can probably be explained by the fact that the word "ship" comes from the Scandinavian "cipam", meaning something related to 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 the names of countries, used not as a geographical, but as a political-economic unit, as well as 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 her in a masculine way.
) The names of ancient cities and city-states are also highlighted in a separate class. In ancient times, cities were often given the names of goddesses (Athens), they were considered the patrons 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
Also often associated with the feminine gender science and the names of other sciences. "The sweet nymph Algebra"
In fairy tales and poetic texts, weak creatures appear in 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 a specific person... My lady guitar
2. Methods for translating gender-marked nouns from English into Russian
When considering ways to translate nouns marked by gender, it would be more appropriate to highlight four aspects for consideration:
Masculine nouns
Feminine nouns Animated entities
Generic nouns
Neuter nouns Inanimate entities
Male and female childbirth
Masculine and feminine gender in English, in the overwhelming majority of cases, are inherent only in animate nouns. Both genders are absolutely logically distributed in English with respect 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) - man / He (m)
A woman (f) - woman / She (f)
A boy (m) - boy / He (m)
A girl (f) - girl / She (f)
A salesman (m) - a seller / He (m) saleswoman (f) - a saleswoman / She (f)
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 parlor and into the road, where, as I still stood motionless I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance ... ”(original)
"- It's done," said blind ... At these words he He let me go and, with an unexpected agility in a cripple, jumped out of the common room onto the road. I still stood motionless, listening to the receding sound of his stick ... "(translation)
"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my 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," whispered mother ... - They can follow us through the window ... Now, - said she when I lowered the curtains, I need to find the key to the chest ... But I would like to know who will dare to touch it ... "(translation)
As you can see 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 this noun will be identical.
Common gender
As for the general gender in English, here some difficulties may arise when translating into Russian, since a general noun can mean either a man or a woman.
In this situation, to determine the gender in which the final word will stand, it is necessary to be guided by the context in which this word is used.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A teacher (common) - teacher (m) / teacher (f)
A pupil (common) - student (m) / student (f)
A friend (common) - friend (m) / girlfriend (f)
A neighbor (common) - neighbor (m) / neighbor (f) our teacher came in she saw us throwing bags.
When the teacher entered the classroom she saw that we were throwing bags.
Fiction example: ("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,” the doctor replied. - To my friend , perhaps, should have recruited a team with you. This mistake, I assure you, is completely accidental. There was nothing deliberate about it. Then you don't seem to like Mr. Arrow? " (translation)
In addition, in the English language there are such nouns of the general gender, which are also translated into Russian by the nouns of the general gender, which do not require a definition of the genus.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
An upstart (gen. P.) - upstart (gen. P.)
A judge (common) - judge (common) crybaby (common) - crybaby (common) glutton (common) - glutton (common)
Neuter gender
As we know, inanimate objects belong to the middle gender in the English language, natural phenomena as well as children under one year old and animals. Most of the nouns that are neuter in English are translated into Russian by a masculine or feminine noun.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A stone (m. R.) - stone (m. R.)
A spoon (Wed) - spoon (f) (Wed) - wind (m)
A bird (Wed.) - bird (f.)
But there are also nouns that in both English and Russian belong to the neuter gender. But the problem here is that it is impossible to single out specific thematic groups to which these words belong.
For example:
Initial form: translation:
A window (cf.) - window (cf.)
Milk (Wed.) - milk (Wed.)
A photo (Wed. p.) - photo (Wed. p.) Heart (Wed. p.) - heart (Wed. p.) Face (Wed. p.) - face (Wed. p.) Sun (Wed. p.) p.) - sun (Wed. p.) plant (Wed. p.) - plant (Wed. p.)
Until now, linguists do not stop 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, AI Thomson, Ya.I. Gin, M. Osman, I. Fodor, J. Lyons, A. Curzan, MH Ibrahim, JJA Van Berkum, etc. specifications. Nevertheless, the essence of the category of genus, its diversity and semantics at the present stage of the development of linguistics are still insufficiently illuminated in linguistic literature.
Conclusion
In this work, a clear analysis of the genus in the English language was made, which made it possible to draw the desired conclusions:
)V singular the structure of the genus is manifested by personal opposition.
) The main exponents of the characteristics of the genus are the personal pronouns of the third person singular.
) The feminine gender has many variations in education and use.
) At present, certain changes are taking place in the system of expression of the genus, 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 gender
Feminine gender - Feminine
Neuter gender - Neuter gender
The English gender is the most contested grammatical category of the noun among linguists. Formally, there is no gender in English. It is believed that the category of gender in the English language finally disappeared already by the end of the Middle English period (mid 11th - late 15th centuries). There is no such abundance of rules as in Russian. Almost all generic differentiation is reduced to the designation of the biological sex by lexical and derivational means.
However, there are some provisions regarding the gender of English nouns:
1. Animated nouns (in this context, this concept refers only to a person) are feminine or masculine, depending on their gender and can be replaced by personal pronouns he / she.His father is a builder. His father is a builder.
He is a builder. He is a builder.
2. The names of animals are of the neuter genus and can be replaced by the pronoun it. Only in cases where it is necessary to clarify the sex of the animal are the pronouns he / she used.
A mouse is in my room. There's 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 Watchdog.
3. All inanimate nouns are neuter and can be replaced by the pronoun it, except for the names of such vehicles as:
ship ship
boat boat, ship
car car, car
They are usually feminine and are replaced by the pronoun she.
4. A number of nouns form feminine by adding masculine to the word:
a. Endings -ess
host - hostess 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 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 nouns are
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, geographic points, cities: Saint Petersburg, forest, land, Korea.
- Qualities of people: bravery (courage), tenderness (tenderness).
- Various abstract concepts: happiness (happiness), evil (evil).
- Proper names (names of mountains, seas, holidays, names, etc.): 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 the English language there is also a similar classification.
The masculine gender in English has the following name: masculine. Here are some masculine nouns as an example: they denote animate male beings:
- boy - boy;
- postman - postman;
- uncle - uncle.
Feminine nouns in English denote female animate beings and are called: feminine. Here are some examples of feminine nouns:
- bride - the bride;
- mother - mother.
The neuter genus is all inanimate objects, as well as some animals. In English it has a name: neuter.
- room - room;
- bird - bird;
- fork - fork;
- window - window.
But sometimes it also happens that femininity can be determined by such suffixes as -ine, -ette, -ess:
- heroine - heroine;
- Cigarette - cigarette;
- hostess is the hostess.
In English, a person's or animal's gender 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 (student boy).
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 cannot be counted, 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 have noticed, the article is always used with the nouns that are numbered.
- Uncountable nouns impossible to count: hair, information, sugar, weather, happiness, news. Most often these are abstract concepts, real or plural nouns.
The number of nouns in English
How is the plural of a noun formed in this language? It's easy to do: you just need to add the plural ending -s:
- a room (room) - rooms (rooms);
- a bag (bag) - baggs (bags);
- a fork - forks;
- a page (page) - pages (pages);
- a frog - a frogs.
There are also some nouns, the plural of which changes a little differently or does not exist at all. There are also words that are already in the plural and do not have a singular.
Exceptions
In order to memorize the following words as much as possible, we advise you to do 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 worth remembering.
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 -o adds an ending -s in the plural:
- radio (radio) - radios (plural radio).
However, if there is another vowel before the -o ending, the -es ending is added to form the plural:
- potato (potatoes) - potatoes (potatoes).
A word with a -y ending after a consonant changes that letter to the letter -i, and only then the -es ending is added:
- family - families;
- fly (fly) - flies (flies).
However, if there is another vowel before the -y ending, this rule will not work:
- monkey (key) - monkeys (keys).
Non-singular nouns
There are a lot of words in Russian that have only plurals. They often represent paired objects. And among the English plural nouns there are those that do not have a word in the singular at all:
- scissors - scissors;
- trousers - pants, 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". V different cases it can be either plural or singular.
- In the case when it speaks in general about "people", it has the plural: There are a lot of people (There are a lot of people).
- But if we mean "people", a general group of people, then the noun has a singular or plural: 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, there are no changes in the composition of a sentence related to the gender of a noun. This means that it doesn't matter if you are talking about a waiter or a waitress, both of them will still be very polite (very polite / polite).
In Russian, for comparison, the grammatical category of gender is: 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 (to himself, to himself), herself (to herself, her), itself;
- Noun suffixes: poetESS;
- Nouns with a meaning that clearly indicate gender: boy (boy, masculine), girl (girl, feminine), bag (bag, neuter);
- Additional nouns-qualifiers indicating gender: woman-cosmonaut (woman-cosmonaut, feminine);
- Job titles: milkman (milkman, masculine), milkmaid (milkmaid, 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 middle genus includes almost all inanimate objects, as well as plants, birds and animals. Pets are an exception.
The logic here is this: if some creature or object seems to you animate, that is, literally having a soul, able to experience, feel, you can "give" it a masculine or feminine pronoun, depending on its gender. That is, a cow preparing for slaughter will be called it by native speakers of English, and her beloved cat Snowflake will be called she.
In addition to pets, the exception when choosing a genus seems to be your 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
Also an exception is a number of geographical names. Usually 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 with its own political and economic characteristics, culture and traditions, it is appropriate to say she.
Russia has decided to boost her low birthrates.
Exceptions are also objects and phenomena that previously served as an object of worship. For example, Earth, nature, fertility, war.
The Earth took pity on us. She brought us forth fruits.
The war was brutal. He took many lives (The war was fierce. He (literally) took many lives).
Many words in English are called unmarked, that is, they do not have a gender category at all, neutral - without additional clarification, it is impossible to understand from them whether we are talking about men or women. Such words include, for example, kinship names (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 order is changing, but also the language. For example, some modern dictionary entries contain a note at GENDER link (see the article GENDER). 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 on 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. " and in relation to women. Other can offend someone. Instead of words indicating the sex of a person, for example, "actress" and "waitress", use neutral words "actor" and "waiter").