Nguyễn Thị Phương Mai – 21070241

Number is also indicated in a limited way in verbs:

- by the singular -s of the 3rd person which occurs in the present tense
- e.g. he reads versus they read.
Number is expressed more fully in the inflected forms of the verbs ‘be’:
- singular am, is, was
- plural are, were.
Number is also expressed by distinct forms of certain pronouns and adjs:’
+ singular: every, each, someone, anybody, a/an
+ plural:
1.2 . Gender;
- Natural gender: gender distinctions made in language depend upon the sex of the
object in the real world.
- English distinguishes 4 types of gender:
+ Masculine: a noun that denotes a male
+ Feminine: A noun that denotes a female
+ common gender: masculine or feminine (m or f), and
+ neuter genders: (sexless)
Examples 4 types:
+ masculine: e.g. boy, man, brother, father, dog, nephew, uncle, king, lion, hero,
husband, son, monk, etc.
+ feminine: e.g. girl, woman, sister, mother, bitch, niece, aunt, queen, lioness, heroin,
wife, daughter, nun, etc.
+ common gender: a noun that can denote both a male and female e.g. baby, doctor,
player, neighbor, friend, parent, pupil, teacher, cousin, reporter, etc.
+ neuter genders: (Sexless) a noun that denotes a non-living thing e.g. pen, laptop, book,
spectacles, chairs, school, bench, room, etc.
1.2 Gender in pronouns:
- gender (masculine, feminine) is expressed by inflection only in personal pronouns,
and only in the 3rd person,
- relative and interrogative pronouns and some other pronouns inflectionally express a
related category of ‘animacy’ (animate/inanimate).
somebody/ one vs. something, anybody/one vs. anything, who, whom vs. what, which.
- distinctions of animacy are variable, but commonly speakers distinguish:
+ between human beings and higher animals (the {woman, dog}, who,..).
+ and lower animals and inanimate things (the{ant, stone} which…).
- A number of ways that gender expressed overfly on the English noun:
+ by derivational suffixes, such as the feminine suffixes -ine (hero/ heroine), -
ess(god/goddess), or the common gender suffixes -er(baker), - ist(artist), -
ian(librarian), etc.
+ by compounds, such as lady-, woman-, girl-, female-, -woman (ladyfriend,
woman, doctor, girl friend) or boy-, male-, gentleman-, -man( boy friend, male
nurse, chairman);
+ by separate forms for masculine, feminine, and common genders, such as
boy/girl/ child or rooster/hen/chicken; and

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Nguyễn Thị Phương Mai – 21070241

+ by separate forms for masculine and feminine genders, such as uncle/ aunt,
bachelor/ spinster and proper names such as Joseph/Josephine, Henry/
Henrietta.
- The marked use of the feminine gender with ships, cars, countries, fortune, art, music,
and nature in modern English is sometimes considered a remnant (= remaining) of
grammatical gender.
e.g.
Isn’t she a beauty? (referring to a car or a ship)
Every country must defend her sovereignty. Fate has exacted her revenge.
1.3. Person: (ngôi)
- …
- Noun are all 3rd person, but this is shown only covertly by the co-occurence of
pronouns:
- e.g. the house..it(*I,*you), the houses..they(*we,*you).
- Person(phạm trù ngôi) is also expressed inflectionally in the singular, present tense,
indicative of verbs by the -s inflection on the 3rd person:
- e.g. she/he/it/write vs. I/you/we/they write.
1.4.Case:
-Definition: an indication of the function of a noun phrase, or the relationship of noun phrase
to a verb or to other noun phrases in the sentences
+ nominative case (the function of subject)
+ genitive case (the function of possessor), and
+ objective case ( the function of object)
e.g. nominative: I,we, you, they

- nouns differentiate inflectionally between the non-genitive, or common case, and the
…
The genitive case
- it does not simply express the notion of possesser, but it indicates a variety of other
notions.
- types of genitives, based on the meaning relationship between the noun in the genitive
and the head noun:
- the double genitive
e.g. a friend of Peter’s, no fault of her
Compare two sentences:
John is a friend of Peter’s vs John is a Peter’s friend.