Definition:
A grammatical classification which in English applies primarily to the third-person singular personal pronouns.
Unlike many other European languages, English has no masculine and feminine inflections for nouns or determiners.
See also:
Etymology:
From Latin, "race, kind"Examples and Observations:
- "The 3rd person singular pronouns contrast in gender:
- The masculine gender pronoun he is used for males--humans or animals that have salient enough characteristics for us to think of them as differentiated (certainly for gorillas, usually for ducks, probably not for rats, certainly not for cockroaches)
"No singular 3rd person pronoun in English is universally accepted as appropriate for referring to a human when you don't want to specify sex. . . . The pronoun most widely used in such cases is they, in a secondary use that is interpreted semantically as singular."
- The feminine gender pronoun she is used for females, and also, by extension, for certain other things conventionally treated in a similar way: political entities (France has recalled her ambassador) and certain personified inanimates, especially ships (May God bless her and all who sail in her.).
- The neuter pronoun it is used for inanimates, or for male and female animals (especially lower animals and non-cuddly creatures), and sometimes for human infants if the sex is unknown or considered irrelevant. . . .
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006) - "Under close scrutiny, [the rule mandating singular agreement with indefinites] emerges as a pragmatically cumbersome, linguistically unreliable, and ideologically provocative rule, which entered the canon under false pretenses."
(Elizabeth S. Sklar, "The Tribunal of Use: Agreement in Indefinite Constructions." College Composition and Communication, December 1988)
Pronunciation: JEN-der
Also Known As: grammatical gender
