Genders in English?

[Noelia]

Hi Everybody

If you had the chance to read my blog, you probably already know I was fascinated, among many other things, about all the different accents in the movie "The Da Vinci Code"

I just bought the DVD to have the chance to listen to them more carefullly without the pressure of having to return the rental DVD.

And today, while I was listening to one of my favorite parts, I heard one of the characters say something like:

"History, she does know the truth"
(said by a native speaker)

And the question that you probably guessed is:

In French and Spanish the word "history" is feminine... but how did they know it was feminin in English and why didnt the character refer to it as "it" ?

Is this a especial case? If not, are there other nouns that have gender in English?

Noelia

[Robie]

I don't know that there's really a gender on any of the nouns in english in a formal grammar sense. But I know that there are times when we refer to things as "she" or "he". I can't think of a time when I've personally used "she" to refer to history but it doesn't sound odd to me either.

One of the most common uses that I can think of where an inanimate object is referred to with a gender is on boats/ships. When someone refers to it fondly, they often refer to a boat or ship as she. And I guess that may be one of the reasons they are named such as Queen Mary or QE II (Queen Elizabeth). Along the same lines, I hear people sometimes refer to their cars or trucks with frases such as "she's a beaut' isn't she?" (beaut' = beauty) or give them names such as "Ol' Besse" or "Jezebel" - generally female names.

The funny thing is that I can't think of any time when I would refer to an inanimate object as "he" but there may be some if I have a chance to think longer.

In the case of the DaVinci Code, I don't know the movie well but I expect from the context that the speaker was a history guru and treats history more fondly than I would. So if I would have said this, I probably would have used "it" instead of "she" and it would have been perfectly ok. In other words, don't feel obligated to use "she" to refer to history or anything else when you are speaking english. You'll sound perfectly natural if you don't.

[Noelia]

Thank you Robie... You are right, the character is a history lover. And do you think he called history a "she" because when people refer to objects more fondly they *usually* treat them as feminine or because in other languages "history" is feminine?

I knew about ships and boats, I'm a big fan of "Titanic" and they call it "she" all the time. I didn't know about cars, but it makes sense, some people here also name their cars, but we have both genders.

[Robie]

I don't think the creators of the english language cared that other languages treat "history" as a feminine noun. Of course, if we had time to really research it, there actually might be some connection way back in history that would be interesting to know.

If you think about all the things that we might refer to as "her" some are feminine and some are masculine in other languages. And then you have German who has three genders and some are neuter. Looking at words for "ship" in both spanish and german, I see "el barco" or "la nave" in spanish and "der schiff (m)" in german and for "car" we have "el carro" "el coche" "el auto" and in German it's "Das Auto(n)" which is neuter.

I don't think we can assume it has to do with other languages and their use of genders.

[tsimon]

Still about genders in English...
I heard that in literature some words have gender in English, like boats and ships, also like Death -feminine word- and God –masculine word. Well, I was surprised when I read this:

Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel... He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her.

It seems that give a gender to a word in English depends on author’s intention, but is it usual to treat the sea as a feminine word?

Thais

[Robie]

Yes, for some reason "the sea", when referred to like this, is always referred to in a feminine sense and never masculine (or at least that I've ever heard). In this case, I suspect it's because of the sailors over the years and their "love afair" with it/her.

I think this is very similar to Noelia's orginal question about history. Using "she" is more poetic than using "it" and often sends a feel of love or at least a high respect for the thing being referred to (history, boat, car, sea, art, etc).

Again, since I'm not the poetic type, if I were to have written that statement, I would have said "it" instead of "she" and the statement would have been perfectly correct. (at least in american english, haha). My sentence would sound a little colder or maybe more detached from the subject (sea) than this one which uses 'she' to refer to it.

Robie

[Noelia]

Hi

It kind of makes sense to me though. In history, it's always been men the ones who sailed, wrote poetry, or studied history itself, so it's not strange that they called the objects of their study with feminine words.

God, on the other hand, is a powerful being -for those who believe- and he cannot be a woman... men would never allow a woman to be stronger and more powerful

Noelia

[Robie]

Unless you are a believer in the context of the DaVinci Code! That book put a whole new twist on the role of woman as it relates to religion. But that's a whole different topic. (y tarea para mi)