Проблема пол в английском языке существительные

The problem of gender in English nouns

Old English

noun system

 

In Modern English, the biological division of masculine and feminine genders is rendered only by lexical means:

special words and lexical affixes, e.g.: man – woman, tiger – tigress, he-goat – she-goat, male nurse, etc.

 

• The category of gender linguistically may be either
• meaningful (natural)
• formal (arbitrary).
• In Russian and some other languages the category of gender is meaningful only for human (person) nouns, but for the non-human (non-person) nouns it is formal, ex.: рука is feminine, палец is masculine, тело is neuter
• In English gender is a meaningful category for the whole class of the nouns

Ex.: A woman was standing on the platform. She was wearing a hat. It was decorated with ribbons and flowers

GENDER

Non-personal nouns

(tree – it)

Personal nouns

Feminine nouns (woman - she)

Masculine nouns

(man -he)

• Nouns of the neuter gender in the upper level of the opposition is more abstract compared to masculine and feminine gender nouns; they are the weak member of the opposition and are naturally used in the position of neutralization.

Ex.: The girl was a sweet little thing; “What is it over there: a man or just a tree?

• On the lower level of the opposition, masculine gender nouns are the weak member of the opposition and can be used to denote all human beings irrespective of sex.

Ex.: Man must change in the changing world.

 

 

• Personification - is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas). 

For example:

• a vessel – she;
• or in high-flown speech, e.g., Britain – she, the sea – she;
• in fairy-tales and poetic texts weak creatures are referred to as she, and strong or evil creature as he, e.g.: Death is the only freedom I will know. I hear His black wings beating about me! (Isles)

 

Conclusion

 

• Blokh: The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the 3rd person. It’s strictly oppositional, formed by 2 oppositions hierarchically related.
• 1. This opposition functions in the whole set of nouns dividing them into person (human) (strong) and non-person (non-human) nouns (weak).
• 2. The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only dividing them into masculine and feminine.
• The cases of reductions:
• 1.Non-person & their substitute are used in the positions of neutralization.
• 2.Great number of nouns are capable for expressing both female & masculine person genders.

 

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