16. The problem of gender in English

The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. The category of gender is presented by masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. Masculine gender comprises nouns denoting male sex (father, brother). Feminine gender comprises nouns denoting female sex (sister, mother). Inanimate nouns and animate non-person nouns (animals) belong to neuter gender. Thus, gender in English is defined by the meaning of the words. English nouns have no grammatical inflexions for denoting gender.

Besides, English nouns can show the sex of their referents lexically: 1) some special words are added to a word to denote the gender in English: boy, male, man, he, tom, bull, cock (boy-friend, male-reader, man-servant, man-producer, he-wolf, tom-cat, tom-swan, bull-calf, cock-sparrow); girl, female, woman, maid, she, cow, hen (girl-friend, female reader, female child, woman-producer, woman-teacher, washer-woman, maid-servant, she-bear, cow-calf, hen-sparrow); 2) by suffixal derivation, i.e. some morphemes are added to a word to denote the gender in English: -ess, -ix (actress, lioness, directrix, executrix). The category of gender is strictly oppositional. It is formed by two oppositions. One opposition functions in the whole set of nouns, dividing them into person (human) nouns and non-person (non-human) nouns. The other opposition functions in the subset of person nouns only, dividing them into masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Thus, the first, general opposition can be referred to as the upper opposition in the category of gender, while the second, partial opposition can be referred to as the lower opposition in this category.

The strong member of the upper opposition is the human subclass of nouns (“person”, or “personality”). The weak member of the opposition comprises both inanimate and animate non-person nouns. Here belong such nouns as tree, mountain, love, etc.; cat, swallow, ant, etc.; crowd, association, etc.; bull and cow, cock and hen, horse and mare, etc. The strong member of the lower opposition is the feminine subclass of person nouns ( “female sex”). Here belong such nouns as woman, girl, mother, bride, etc. The masculine subclass of person nouns comprising such words as man, boy, father, bridegroom, etc. makes up the weak member of the opposition.

A great many person nouns in English are capable of expression both feminine and masculine person genders by way of the pronominal correlation in question. These are referred to as nouns of the “common gender”. Here belong such words as person, parent, friend, cousin, doctor, president, etc. These words are substituted by pronouns he or she depending on the meaning.

In the plural, all the gender distinctions are neutralized in the immediate explicit expression, though they are rendered obliquely through the correlation with the singular.

As we see, the category of gender in English is semantic, i.e. meaningful in so far as it reflects the actual features of the named objects.