UNIVERSITY « 

GOCE DELCEV » STIP

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

GENDER AND CASE OF

NOUNS

MORPHOLOGY 2 - Lecture 4
M.A. Snezana Kirova
 GENDER OF NOUNS

In English there are four genders of nouns:

Masculine gender - refers to a male character or member

of a species.
Feminine
gender - refers to a female member of a species.
Common gender - refers to a member of species which
can be a male or a female.
Neuter gender - refers to a member of a species which is
neither a male nor a female.
 GENDER OF NOUNS

Examples:
1.Masculine - man, hero, boy, emperor, actor
2.Feminine - woman, heroine, girl, niece, empress,
actress
3.Common - child, student, friend, applicant,
candidate, servant, member
4.Neuter (usually lifeless objects) - chair, table, tree,
star, mountain, street, book, car, school, paper, pencil,
computer
 GENDER OF NOUNS

Nouns which denote inanimate things are said to

of Neuter Gender, from the Latin word neuter,
neither (i.e. neither masculine nor feminine) :
iron, stone, river. The only exception to this
rule is when inanimate things are represented
as persons.
Note. Collective Nouns are Neuter though
denoting collections of male or female objects:
army, committee, sisterhood.
 GENDER OF NOUNS

When the same name is used for male and

female, it is said to be of Common Gender : bird,
fish, parent, sovereign, friend. There are three
ways of indicating difference of Gender in Nouns:

1. By inflexion.*
2. By prefixing a gender word.
3. By distinct words.
 GENDER OF NOUNS

* INFLEXION [Latin, inflecto, flexi, flexum, to

bend or change] means some addition to, or
change in, a word to denote a modification of
meaning. The inflexional changes of words are
explained in connexion with their classification
1.The feminine is usually distinguished from the
masculine by the ending -ess (The ending -ess
comes through the French from the Latin ending –
ix: duchess is from Fr. duchesse.):

Manager----- Manageress Emperor----- Empress

Poet----- Poetess Traitor----- Traitress

Shepherd----- Shepherdess Prince----- Princess

Benefactor----- Benefactress Lion----- Lioness

Hunter----- Huntress Mayor----- Mayoress

Tiger----- Tigress Actor----- Actress

Heir----- Heiress Master----- Mistress

 GENDER OF NOUNS

A few isolated instances of other feminine endings

occur:

(1.) -trix, in a few Nouns taken directly from the Latin:

Masculine Feminine
administrator administratrix
executor executrix
testator testatrix
 GENDER OF NOUNS

(2.) -en, an old feminine suffix of which only one pure

English example remains : vix-en (0. E. fixen; Germ.
fuchsin), she-fox; hence, a spiteful woman.

To this head belong also:

Masculine            Feminine
hero                      heroine (Greek)
Comedian comedienne (French)

Note: The suffixes -en, -in, -ine, are Identical in origin.

 GENDER OF NOUNS

(3.) -ster, an old English ending, of which only one example is

now in use as feminine : spinster (lit. she that spins; viz. with the
spinning-wheel); an unmarried woman.
(4.) -a in a few Romance words (The Romance languages are those
spoken in the countries which were once provinces of the Roman Empire, and
are derived from Latin.):
Masculine                        Feminine
don                                   donna (Italian)
infant                                 infanta(Spanish)
signor                                signora (Italian)
sultan sultana (Italian, feminine of sultano sultan,
from Arabic sulṭān. First known use: 1585)
)
 GENDER OF NOUNS

II. Prefixing a gender word

Usually the gender words he and she are
prefixed to neuter words:

he-goat - she-goat,
cock sparrow - hen sparrow,
he-bear - she-bear
 GENDER OF NOUNS

III. Gender shown by Different Words

In some of these pairs, the feminine and the
masculine forms are entirely different words;
others have in their origin the same root.

NOTE: You can find the list of some of these

pairs in a separate word document uploaded in
your course; it also contains their history.
 CASE OF NOUNS

Case denotes the relation of a noun or a

pronoun to other words in a sentence.
In English, there are three cases:

the nominative
the objective
the possessive
 CASE OF NOUNS

The nominative case is also called the

subjective case.
The possessive case is also called the
genitive case. The possessive case of
nouns is marked in written English by
adding ‘s or s’ to the noun.
English nouns have exactly the same form
in the nominative and the objective case.
 CASE OF NOUN - Nominative

Nouns and pronouns in the nominative

case, also called the subjective case,
are used as subjects of clauses.

For example
George speaks.
The door was shut.
 CASE OF NOUNS - Objective

The Objective Case

A noun that follows a transitive verb or a

preposition is said to be the object of the verb
or the object of the preposition. Nouns and
pronouns used as the object of a verb or
objects of a preposition are in the objective
case.
 CASE OF NOUNS - Objective

For example in the sentence:

Thomas opened his knife.
knife is the object of the transitive verb
opened and is in the objective case.
In the sentence:
The bird sat on the tree.
tree is the object of the preposition on
and is in the objective case.
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

 The possessive case is also called the

genitive case. The possessive case
denotes the relation of property or
possession. In English, possession is
shown by the use of the possessive case
of a noun or pronoun or by the use of a
prepositional phase beginning with of.
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

For example

The fact that David owns a harp is shown by

David’s harp
or
the harp of David.
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

 The possessive singular of nouns is

regularly formed by adding an apostrophe
(‘) and the letter s to the nominative.
For example
 man’s fate
David’s songs
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

 When the plural noun ends in s, only the

apostrophe (‘) is added.

For example
 boys’ bicycles
ladies’ careers
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

 Both an apostrophe (‘) and an s are

added when the plural ends in any other
letter than s.
For example
 men’s jobs
women’s professions
children’s schools
 CASE OF NOUNS - Possessive

The bare apostrophe (‘) is preferred:

- for words ending in -nce (stance'); - for many
classical names (Aristophanes', Jesus', Moses');
- where the juxtaposition of two or more [s]
sounds would cause an awkwardness in
pronunciation (thesis').
 DOUBLE POSSESSIVE

A peculiar form, a double possessive,

possessive has
become a fixed idiom in modern English in
several cases:
(1) When a word is modified by a, the, this, that,
every, no, any, each, etc. , and at the same time
by a possessive noun
Those lectures of Lowell's had a great influence
with me
 DOUBLE POSSESSIVE

2) It is more emphatic than the simple possessive

on the person who possesses rather than the
thing which he/she possesses.
For example:
He is a friend of mine. (The emphasis is on mine
not friend.)
He got several awards for a documentary of his.
It is a weakness of John’s to bet on horses.
 DOUBLE POSSESSIVE

(3) It prevents ambiguity.

For example
"This introduction of Waterbury's has all these
advantages“.
(The statement clearly means only one thing - the
introduction which Waterbury made. If, however,
we use the phrase of Waterbury, the sentence
might be understood as just explained, or it might
mean this act of introducing Waterbury.)
 Expressions of time and measurement

For expressions of time and measurement, the

possessive is shown with an apostrophe -s: -s
"one dollar's worth"
"a hard day's night"
"two years' experience"
"an evening's entertainment"
"two weeks' notice“
Note: The apostrophe in this case stands for the word of.
 Compound Possessives

 When you are showing possession with

compound nouns, the apostrophe's placement
depends on whether the nouns are acting
separately or together.
 Miguel's and Cecilia's new cars are in the parking
lot.
This means that each of them has at least one
new car and that their ownership is a separate
matter.
Compound Possessives

• Lewis and Clark's expectations were very much the

same.
This construction tells us that the two gentlemen held
one set of expectations in common.
• Lewis's and Clark's expectations were altogether
different.
This means that the expectations of the two men were
different.