Flashcards on Noun Gender in English Grammar
Noun Gender in English Grammar: A Student's Guide & Analysis
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Noun Gender (English and other languages)
12 cards
Card 1
Question: What is a grammatical gender class and how does it differ from English gender?
Answer: A grammatical gender class groups nouns by endings or agreement patterns (e.g., masculine, feminine, neuter) as in Latin or Slovak. English lacks gram
Card 2
Question: Which pronouns do inanimate nouns in English pattern with?
Answer: Inanimate nouns pattern with it, they, and which.
Card 3
Question: How are animate nouns divided in English and which pronouns do they use?
Answer: Animate nouns are divided into personal and nonpersonal types. Personal animate nouns use he/she and who; nonpersonal animate nouns (animals) mostly t
Card 4
Question: Give examples of personal animate noun pairs that are morphologically unmarked for gender.
Answer: Examples: bachelor/spinster, boy/girl, brother/sister, father/mother, king/queen, son/daughter, husband/wife, uncle/aunt, monk/nun, Mr/Mrs, nephew/nie
Card 5
Question: Give examples of personal animate noun pairs that are morphologically marked for gender.
Answer: Examples: bridegroom/bride, duke/duchess, emperor/empress, god/goddess, hero/heroine, host/hostess, steward/stewardess, waiter/waitress, widower/widow
Card 6
Question: What is the 'personal dual gender' class and give examples.
Answer: A large class of nouns that can refer to either sex without morphological marking, e.g., artist, chairman, cook, criminal, doctor, enemy, foreigner, f
Card 7
Question: When is it necessary to use a 'gender marker' with dual-gender nouns? Give examples.
Answer: For clarity when sex is relevant, e.g., boy friend/girl friend, man student/woman student (to indicate gender explicitly).
Card 8
Question: How are nonpersonal animate nouns (animals) treated for pronoun agreement?
Answer: Most animals take it and which, but higher animals or those with special social status can take he, she, who (e.g., buck/doe, bull/cow, cock/hen, dog/
Card 9
Question: How do British and American English differ in treating collective nouns for pronoun/agreement?
Answer: In BrE collective nouns (committee, government, team, army, family) can take either it/which (singular unity) or they/who (plural members). In AmE plu
Card 10
Question: How are country names treated differently depending on use, and give examples?
Answer: As geographical units they are inanimate (e.g., 'France... It is one of the largest'). As political/economic units they are often personified feminine