(11) Nouns and their Gender.
(Natural, Grammatical; Primary and Secondary Functions; Signals of Gender).
(11.1) Gender as a Grammatical Category
- a semantically-grammatical category, more semantic than grammatical
- E: semantic criteria: the grammatical gender = the biological sex
- reflects the extralinguistic reality in people and some animals (= + animate): male = masculine, female = feminine, child = neuter
- manifested in pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive, emphatic, relative, interrogative
- animate: some-/any-/nobody, some-/any-/no one x inanimate: some-/any-/nothing
- CZ: grammatical criteria with no direct relation to the extralinguistic reality
- manifested in derivational morphology, declination type and agreement with the related sentence members
(a) masculine: male human beings and animals
(b) feminine: female human beings and animals
(c) neuter: inanimate things and animals whose sex we do not know
(11.2) Special Lexical Entry
- special lexical entry for people and some animals
- some animals: gender-specific lexical items co-exist with gender-unspecific words to denote both males and females
- E <> CZ
- man x woman x child, boy x girl, lad x lass, husband x wife, father x mother, brother x sister, uncle x aunt, nephew x niece, bachelor x spinster, gentleman x lady, sir x madam, king x queen, monk x nun, etc.
- stallion x mare x colt/filly (general: horse), bull x cow x ox, cock x hen x chicken, dog x bitch, gander x goose, drake x duck, fox x vixen, hart/stag x hind (general: deer), etc.
(11.3) Derivation
- E: rare x CZ: most frequent
(1) the feminine suffix –ess accompanied by morpheme alternation
- actor / actress, count / countess, duke / duchess, heir / heiress, master / mistress, prophet / prophetess, steward / stewardess, traitor / traitress, waiter / waitress, etc.
(2) rarely some other suffixes
- hero/hero-ine, usher/usher-ette, widow/widow-er, bride/bride-groom [note: the two latter incl. the derivation of the masculine form]
(11.4) Composing
- typically E x absent in CZ
- use of composites with man/woman, gentleman/lady, boy/girl, male/female, etc.
- boy students / girl students, sportsman / sportswoman, laundryman / laundrywoman, male readers / female readers, man-servant / maid-servant, etc.
- tom-cat/pussy-cat, turkey-cock/turkey-hen, he-goat/she-goat, etc.
(11.5) Gender Unspecific Lexical Items
- E: most frequent x CZ: rare (host, osoba, mluvčí, rodič)
- when need to express gender explicitly => use of composing
- difficulties in referring to gender unspecific expressions: everyone/everybody, each, anyone/anybody, somebody/someone, nobody/no one, person, etc.
(a) colloquial: the plural referential pronoun they (everyone has their faults)
- x results in violation of agreement
(b) formal: he as a gender unspecific pronoun
(c) legal: the phrase he or she (anyone naturally hesitates to say what he or she thinks)
(11.6) Personification
(11.6.1) Emotional Personification
- pets, domestic animals, some game animals
- does not necessarily reflect the natural sex (fishermen: masculine for big fish/feminine for whales)
- use of the relative pronoun which even in personification
(11.6.2) Stylistic Personification
- common for ships, vehicles, machines, names of countries and cities = feminine (a fishing vessel was unloading her cargo; there she is, the most luxurious car even made)
- mountains, rivers, time, life = masculine (old man river)
- gender motivation
(a) Latin: sun (sol, masc.), moon (luna, fem.), earth (terra, fem.)
(b) female associations (small, lovely, weak) = positive: spring, nature, virtues, arts, liberty, charity, victory, mercy, etc.
(c) male associations (big, dangerous, strong) = negative: vices, death, anger, despair, war, murder, law, etc.
- clash of Latin motivation x gender associations: love (amor, masc.)
- sometimes alternation fem./masc.: sea, world, etc.
Literature
Dušková, Libuše, et al. Mluvnice současné angličtiny na pozadí češtiny. Praha: Academia, 2003.
Svoboda, Aleš, and Mária Opělová Károlyová. A Brief Survey of the English Morphology. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, 1993.
Other Sources
Veselovská, Ludmila. Přednášky a semináře: Morfologie 2. ZS 2003/04.