An English Grammar Part 5

When, however, _inanimate_ things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words. For instance: in Latin, _hortus_ (garden) is masculine, _mensa_ (table) is feminine, _corpus_ (body) is neuter; in German, _das Messer_ (knife) is neuter, _der Tisch_ (table) is masculine, _die Gabel_ (fork) is feminine.

The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the _meaning_ of the word, in other languages gender follows the _form_; that is, in English, gender depends on _s.e.x_: if a thing spoken of is of the male s.e.x, the _name_ of it is masculine; if of the female s.e.x, the _name_ of it is feminine. Hence:

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

22. Gender is the mode of distinguis.h.i.+ng s.e.x by words, or additions to words.

23. It is evident from this that English can have but two genders,--masculine and feminine.

[Sidenote: _Gender nouns. Neuter nouns._]

All nouns, then, must be divided into two princ.i.p.al cla.s.ses,--gender nouns, those distinguis.h.i.+ng the s.e.x of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish s.e.x, or names of things without life, and consequently without s.e.x.

Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.

[Sidenote: _Some words either gender or neuter nouns, according to use._]

24. Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the word _child_ is neuter in the sentence, "A little _child_ shall lead them," but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth,--

I have seen A curious _child_ ... applying to _his_ ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped sh.e.l.l.

Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:--

Before the barn door strutted the gallant _c.o.c.k_, that pattern of a husband, ... clapping _his_ burnished wings.--IRVING.

_Gunpowder_ ... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent _his_ rider sprawling over _his_ head--_id._

Other animals are not distinguished as to s.e.x, but are spoken of as neuter, the s.e.x being of no consequence.

Not a _turkey_ but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with _its_ gizzard under _its_ wing.--IRVING.

He next stooped down to feel the _pig_, if there were any signs of life in _it_.--LAMB.

[Sidenote: _No "common gender._"]

25. According to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either distinguish s.e.x (or the s.e.x is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish s.e.x.

If such words as _parent_, _servant_, _teacher_, _ruler_, _relative_, _cousin_, _domestic_, etc., do not show the s.e.x to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.

26. Put in convenient form, the division of words according to s.e.x, or the lack of it, is,--

(MASCULINE: Male beings.

Gender nouns { (FEMININE: Female beings.

Neuter nouns: Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose s.e.x cannot be determined.

27. The inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. _Forms_ would be a more accurate word than _inflections_, since inflection applies only to the _case_ of nouns.

There are three ways to distinguish the genders:--

(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.

(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.

(3) By using a different word for each gender.

I. Gender shown by Prefixes.

[Sidenote: _Very few of cla.s.s I._]

28. Usually the gender words _he_ and _she_ are prefixed to neuter words; as _he-goat_--_she-goat_, _c.o.c.k sparrow_--_hen sparrow_, _he-bear_--_she-bear_.

One feminine, _woman_, puts a prefix before the masculine _man_.

_Woman_ is a short way of writing _wifeman_.

II. Gender shown by Suffixes.

29. By far the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes. In this particular the native endings have been largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.

[Sidenote: _Native suffixes._]

The native suffixes to indicate the feminine were _-en_ and _-ster_.

These remain in _vixen_ and _spinster_, though both words have lost their original meanings.

The word _vixen_ was once used as the feminine of _fox_ by the Southern-English. For _fox_ they said _vox_; for _from_ they said _vram_; and for the older word _fat_ they said _vat_, as in _wine vat_. Hence _vixen_ is for _fyxen_, from the masculine _fox_.

_Spinster_ is a relic of a large cla.s.s of words that existed in Old and Middle English,[1] but have now lost their original force as feminines. The old masculine answering to _spinster_ was _spinner_; but _spinster_ has now no connection with it.

The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:--

[Sidenote: _Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and little used._]

(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as _czarina_, _senorita_, _executrix_, _donna_. These are attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English.

[Sidenote: _Slightly changed and widely used._]

(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine, _-ess_ (French _esse_, Low Latin _issa_), the one most used.

The corresponding masculine may have the ending _-er_ (_-or_), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this termination _-ess_.