Name.... EXERCISE 37 Grade.. The teacher should give twenty-five of the foreign nouns as a spelling lesson. The pupil should write the plural forms. LESSON XIX PERSON AND GENDER PERSON Person is that modification of the noun or pronoun that denotes the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken of. 1. The first person denotes the person speaking; as, "I am here." "I, John, am here." 2. The second person denotes the speaker spoken to; as, "You may go." "John, you may go." 3. The third person denotes the person or thing spoken of; as, "She may go." "He may go." "John may go." Observation. Note that the person of the noun John is indicated by its use in the sentence, and that the person of the pronoun is indicated by a change in form. GENDER Gender is that modification of a noun or pronoun that denotes the sex of the object named. The masculine gender denotes the male sex; as, man, actor, Mr. Smith, hc, him. The feminine gender denotes the female sex; as, woman, actress, Miss Jones, she, her. The common gender denotes either sex; as, children, parent, persons, · they, us. The neuter gender denotes want of sex; as, tree, box, home, street, it, them. Caution. The student should not confuse gender with sex. Remember that sex is a characteristic belonging to some objects, and that gender is a modification belonging to all nouns and pronouns. WAYS OF DISTINGUISHING GENDER Nouns distinguish the sex of the objects they represent in three ways: While it is perfectly correct, grammatically, to form the feminine gender by the addition of ess, the tendency of the present day is to use the words "author," "doctor," "poet," "editor," "instructor," and a few others to denote persons of either sex. GENDER OF PERSONIFIED NOUNS We often consider the names of animals and personified objects as masculine or feminine without regard to sex, according to the characteristics the animals or objects are supposed to possess; as, "The lion shook the cage with his roars." "The cat placed her paw upon the mouse." "The sun shone in all his glory." "The moon unveil'd her peerless light."-Milton. "The ship lost her rudder." When a singular subject is used to imply persons of both sexes we use the masculine gender; as, “Everybody presented his ticket at the door." Note. The absence of a personal pronoun of common gender in English makes it difficult to observe this rule where both sexes are involved. Any one, everybody, etc., may be used for either man or woman; but he is masculine, she feminine. Hence the difficulty in such sentences as this: "Every boy and girl paid .... dime cheerfully." What pronoun shall be used before "dime"? Not his, because that excludes the girls; nor her, because that excludes the boys. The strict logical construction demands both, his or her. But this is cumbersome and sounds awkward. The plural pronoun is used in such sentences by many good speakers and writers: "Every boy and girl paid their dime.”—Allen's School Grammar of the English Language. GENDER OF COLLECTIVE NOUNS A collective noun is in the neuter gender unless the individuals composing it are meant; as, "The jury returned its verdict after midnight." AGREEMENT WITH ANTECEDENT A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in person, number and gender; as, "Many a man looks back on the days of his youth with melancholy regret." |