(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.