Sunday, September 9, 2018

grammar - Using “she” pronoun to refer to a ship


Why—and based on what—do we use “she” with “ship” in the English language? Why do we consider a ship female when we know that it is not alive?




Answer



It might be the best to answer this question by quoting from Wikipedia (Gender in English),



A system of grammatical gender, whereby every noun was treated as either masculine, feminine or neuter, existed in Old English, but fell out of use during the Middle English period. Modern English retains features relating to natural gender, namely the use of certain nouns and pronouns (such as he and she) to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other sex, and certain others (such as it) for sexless objects – although feminine pronouns may optionally be used when referring to ships (and analogous machinery) and nation states.



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