Comments on: (s)he vs they http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/she-vs-they Language in a word Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:43:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: JJM http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/she-vs-they#comment-588 JJM Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:16:17 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/she-vs-they#comment-588 Male or female, a recruit or a sentry is always feminine in French (just as, male or female, a person is always feminine). Try googling "les sentinelles militaires elles" and you'll see lots of examples. Do the same with "les recrues militaires elles." What did we ever do without Google? In my own experience, the gender often shifts as you go from the general to the specific: if you're just discussing "une sentinelle," you'll use "elle" but if you know the particular sentry is "Soldat Pierre Tremblay," you'll start using "il" in reference to the individual rather than his post. Examples like this point out the difference between the concept of gender and that of sex. No French speaker would consider a male sentry a "woman" simply because the noun that describes his position is feminine any more than they would consider a table a woman because it is feminine.* An understandably hard concept for English speakers to grasp as they conflate (grammatical) gender and sex far too readily. * Similarly of course, no German speaker would consider a girl not to be female in sex because the noun is neuter. Male or female, a recruit or a sentry is always feminine in French (just as, male or female, a person is always feminine). Try googling “les sentinelles militaires elles” and you’ll see lots of examples. Do the same with “les recrues militaires elles.”

What did we ever do without Google?

In my own experience, the gender often shifts as you go from the general to the specific: if you’re just discussing “une sentinelle,” you’ll use “elle” but if you know the particular sentry is “Soldat Pierre Tremblay,” you’ll start using “il” in reference to the individual rather than his post.

Examples like this point out the difference between the concept of gender and that of sex. No French speaker would consider a male sentry a “woman” simply because the noun that describes his position is feminine any more than they would consider a table a woman because it is feminine.*

An understandably hard concept for English speakers to grasp as they conflate (grammatical) gender and sex far too readily.

* Similarly of course, no German speaker would consider a girl not to be female in sex because the noun is neuter.

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