Natural gender: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[Grammatical gender#Natural gender]]{{R with Wikidata item}} |
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In [[linguistics]], '''natural gender''' refers to biological [[sex]], i.e., the state of being [[male]] or [[female]], as opposed to [[grammatical gender]], a system where biological sex is not a primary factor. |
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In a language that primarily uses natural gender, such as [[English language|English]], the grammatical gender of a word will normally agree with its referent's natural gender. Things that are neither male nor female are given a separate gender called [[inanimate]] or [[neuter]]. |
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Most languages with masculine and feminine genders use natural gender to some extent. A common exception is in [[diminutive]] nouns, which are often neuter. In the [[German language]], for instance, ''Mädchen'' ("girl") has neuter grammatical gender though its referent's natural gender is feminine. |
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Languages that do not exclusively rely on natural gender may classify inanimates as feminine or masculine as well as neuter. This may be done arbitrarily, as in [[French language|French]], where the moon (''la lune'') is classified as feminine, or it may be done based on [[form]]al grounds, as in [[Latin]] where words with the suffix ''-tas, -tatis'' are classified as feminine. Sometimes natural gender will override formal assignment of grammatical gender: in Latin, for example, ''nauta'' ("sailor") is masculine, and ''nurus'' ("daughter-in-law") is feminine, even though the endings ''-a'' and ''-us'' are normally associated with the opposite gender. |
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==See also== |
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*[http://www.storkselect.com/ StorkSelect.com: Baby Gender Selection book] |
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* [[Grammatical gender]] |
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[[Category:Linguistics]] |
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Latest revision as of 22:53, 1 February 2023
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