Hello there! Here's what I found yesterday in one of my English textbooks. I found it very strange because I never noticed that this terms were feminine. English natives, do you confirm it is true?
"In English, the masculine and feminine gender is assigned to human beings, and the neuter to non-human entities (plants, animals, objects), with some exceptions: boat, car, ship are referred to with the pronoun she; small animals (robin) are sometimes referred to with he or she on the basis of a process of personification."
<cite class="citation book">"She is sometimes used for ships, and may also be used for other inanimates, such as cars. She is also used as an alternative to it for countries, when viewed as political entities."</cite>
<cite class="citation book"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Huddleston" title="Rodney Huddleston">Huddleston, Rodney</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Pullum" class="mw-redirect" title="Geoffrey Pullum">Pullum, Geoffrey</a> (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 488–489. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-43146-8" title="Special:BookSources/0-521-43146-8">0-521-43146-8</a>.</cite>
As you can see, our use of pronouns for non-humans is not really about grammatical gender - it's about personal feelings and associations. And in the case of animals, it's also about biology.
One last observation regarding grammar:
When we are using 'he' and 'she' to talk about human beings, the corresponding relative and interrogative pronoun is 'who'. But note that we never use 'who' to refer to animals or inanimate objects - we always use the neuter forms 'which' or 'that'.
I think this proves that these words are not actually 'feminine' in a grammatical sense.
The issue of calling ships 'she' is historical. In the past, sailors would spend days, months or even years at sea, with their lives constantly at risk. Sailing was dangerous and uncertain, and the only thing that protected them from death was their ship, and the vessel came to be seen as a kind of 'mother'. Or, looking at it another way - the ship could be seen as similar to a girlfriend or wife: for her to be kind to you, you needed to look after her and treat her well.
A car enthusiast who lovingly cares for their vehicle could also refer to their automobile as 'she'. This is particularly the case with classic vintage cars, which have unique and sometimes capricious 'personalities' and demand a lot of care and attention. "Fill her up" is the traditional phrase that motorists used to use in the days when petrol stations had attendants. The same could go for someone who, for example, restores and runs old steam trains - it wouldn't be unusual for such a person to refer to this train as 'she'.
Note that countries can also be personified. It is common, particularly in contexts where an emotive or lyric style is appropriate, to refer to a country using 'she' or 'her' - an extension of the 'motherland' metaphor.
Do we ever use 'he' to refer to inanimate objects? Occasionally. This summer, I went on a sailing holiday, and I happened to notice the way that we used pronouns. We might say something like 'steer her round to starboard' to refer to our own yacht. But when we were talking about a nearby boat which seemed to be acting in a rather aggressive fashion, which pronoun did we use to personify our relationship? We used 'he'.
Ok now I see! Thank you all very much :D
@Su.ki. you've been very accurate and thorough, thanks!!
