Gender concord
Gender concord involves concord for grammatical gender. In English, gender concord is restricted to phoric concord in which third person singular pronouns typically must agree with the gender of the noun (typically a person or thing) which they reference.
Gender concord in English[edit | edit source]
For example, we can say:
Example sentence | Notes |
---|---|
"After the man went running, he was very tired." | He is an anaphor for "the man"; they agree since they are both masculine. We wouldn't say *"After the man went running, she was very tired." or "After the man went running, it was very tired." |
"After the woman went running, she was very tired." | "She" is an anaphor for "the woman"; they agree since they are both feminine. |
"Kelly had a plant. It was beautiful." | "It" is an anaphor for "the plant"; they agree since they are both neuter. |
The above references are anaphoric, but they can also be cataphoric, and exophoric.
Gender neutral language[edit | edit source]
Gender neutral language is often used, especially in academic English. To do this, we can either use co-ordinated gender pronouns or singular they:
Example sentence | Notes |
---|---|
"If a person wants to succeed in life, he or she must work hard" | co-ordinated gender pronouns |
"If a person wants to succeed in life, he/she must work hard" | co-ordinated gender pronouns |
"If a person wants to succeed in life, they must work hard" | singular they |
It seems logical to keep the whole lexical chain gender neutral, especially in formal registers.
Examples from other languages[edit | edit source]
In other languages, gender concord has additional effects. e.g. in German pronouns and articles must agree, and in French pronouns, articles and adjectives must agree.
German[edit | edit source]
In another Germanic language, German, singular nouns are marked for gender, as well as case and number:
Gender | Definite article | Indefinite article | Example | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | der | ein | der Mann | the man |
Feminine | die | eine | die Frau | the woman |
Neuter | das | einen | das Auto | the car |
This system is broadly similar to that found in Old English, which English has lost.
French[edit | edit source]
French grammar is less closely related to English than German grammar. There is no neuter. It shows concord for adjectives as well. Feminine adjectives typically take the feminine -e suffix:
Gender | Definite article | indefinite article | adjective agreement | Example | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | le | un | none | un grand magasin
le grand magasin |
a big shop
the big shop |
Feminine | la | une | -e | la grande ville
une grande ville |
the big town
a big town |
Loan phrases in English[edit | edit source]
The exception to this is loan phrases from French and Latin, which can retain their concord present in their original language when transferred into English.
[examples]