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There are traditional cases of association of certain nouns with certain genders. We can use "he—she"
for an animal if we know the animal's sex and feel sympathy or interest. E.g. Go and find the cat and put
him out.
"She" can be used for a country, a city in myths, poetry or politico-economic contexts. E.g. England is
proud ot her poets. "Nature" is "it" in a neutral context and "she" in an emotionally coloured text. E.g. If
Nature is to be commanded, she must be obeyed.
"Ship," "plane," "boat," "hovercraft" are referred to as "she" ("shuttle" - "it"), e.g.What a lovely ship!
What is she called?
"Car," "automobile" are referred to as "it," however, they, especially those in which the speaker takes a
personal pride, can be referred to as "she" or "he" by men or women respectively.
"It" may be used for person nouns if we mean not a person but the social position, status, rank. E.g.
She's the managing director and looks it.
"It" is closely associated with the absence of individuality and is often used scornfully.
There are various ways of indicating the belonging of the noun to the feminine gender as opposition to
the non-expression of the feminine gender is understood as belonging to the masculine gender. They are:
suffixes, compound words of a certain structure, different words.
The suffixes -ess, -ine, -ix, -ina, -ette mark the feminine gender:
administrator — administratrix
czar — czarina
executor — executrix
heir — heiress
hero — heroine
host — hostess
tiger — tigeress
testator — testatrix
usher — usherette
The suffix -er marks the masculine gender: widow — widower. Gender is expressed in compound
words with the second component -man, -woman, -boy, -girl, -lord, -lady, -cock, -hen:
salesman — saleswoman
washerman — washerwoman
cashboy — cashgirl
landlord — landlady
peacock — peahen
The masculine noun "bridegroom" is opposed to the feminine noun "bride."
There are different words for creatures of male and female sex:
man — woman
lad — lass
brother — sister
bachelor — spinster
father — mother
husband — wife
son — daughter
nephew — niece
uncle — aunt
gentleman — lady
sir — madame
wizard — witch
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