>>> [...]
>>> Chorus:
>>> Way-hay, up she rises
>>> [...]
>>> Wer (er)hebt sich da? Die Sonne? Das Schiff?
>> Wahrscheinlich der Anker oder eine Segel.
> Ist Anker oder Segel im Englischen ein grammatisches Femininum?
Nein.
| In English, gender is not a feature of nouns themselves (as in
| such languages as German or Russian). Rather, it relates
| directly to the /meanings/ of nouns, with particular reference
| to biological sex.
| [...]
| NOTE [...] [*c*] Countries and ships (especially by name) are
| often treated as female. [...]
|
(Sidney Greenbaum, Randolph Quirk, "A Student's Grammar of the
English Language", section 5.45 and 5.46, 1990 (1991), p. 99-101.)
Ein schnelles Suchen ergibt, daß Anker (/anchor/, OE /ancor/) im
Altenglischen männlich war. Segel (/sail/, OE /segl/) war offenbar
männlich oder sachlich. Man sollte aber gründlicher recherchieren,
als ich es jetzt kann oder will.
Der Wal, /hwæl/, war auch männlich, trotzdem hat man bei der
Waljagd "There she blows!" (oder "Thar she blows!") gerufen, auch
wenn ein männliches Tier gejagt wurde.
| A large bull whale lay about a quarter of a mile ahead of us
| [...]
|
| "Never give up, my lads," said the headsman in a cheering voice.
| "Mark my words; we'll have him yet. Only /think/ he's ours,
| there's no mistake about it, he /will/ be ours. Now for a hard,
| steady pull. Give way."
|
| "Give way, sir. Give way all."
|
| "There she blows. Oh, pull, my lively lads, only a mile off.
| There she blows."
|
("The Literary Museum", Vol. 4, No.2, Boston, Saturday, January 16,
1847, p. 10.)
"There he blows!" hat man offenbar auch gerufen, "she" ist aber
häufiger.
Aus einem Buch für Englischlernende:
| English does not have many problems of grammatical gender.
| Usually, people are /he/ or /she/ and things are /it/. Note the
| following points.
|
| *1 animals, cars, ships and countries*
|
| People sometimes call animals /he/ or /she/, especially when
| they are thought of as having personality, intelligence or
| feelings. This is common with pets and domestic animals like
| cats, dogs and horses. [...]
|
| Some people use /she/ for cars, motorbikes etc; sailors often
| use /she/ for boats and ships (but most other people use /it/).
|
(Michael Swan, "Practical English Usage", Third Edition, Oxford,
2005, section 222, p. 196-197.)
Aus einem älteren Buch:
| *19.*1[1] In nature we find *sex*, male and female; outside
| animated beings everything is sexless.
|
| In grammar we speak of *genders.* In Latin, German and other
| cognate languages each substantive has a definite gender,
| masculine, feminine or neuter. The distinction has some
| connexion with the natural distinction between male, female, and
| sexless, but in a great many cases it seems to be purely
| arbitrary without any reference to natural conditions. This was
| the case also in Old English, but in Modern English we have no
| traces left of this system, though perfect simplicity has not
| been achieved.
| *19.*6[3] The use of /he/ and /she/ in speaking of human beings
| and animals, whose sex is known to the speaker, and of /it/ in
| speaking of what is inanimate, offers nothing of interest; but
| it is interesting to notice that the same three pronouns may
| also be used outside their proper sphere.
|
| Let us first take /it/. /It/ is used very extensively of animals
| whose sex is either unknown, as generally in speaking of lower
| animals, or at any rate indifferent to the speaker. On the other
| hand, a sportsman or the owner of the animal in question will
| generally prefer saying /he/ or /she/, as the case may be. As
| /it/ is impersonal, "objective," one may show one's sympathy
| with the animal world by using the more subjectively coloured
| /he/ or /she/ even when one knows nothing of the sex of the
| particular animal one is speaking of, /he/ perhaps more often
| than /she/, though one will speak of "the hare in her form"
| (/i.e./ nest or lair).
|
| /It/ may be used of a human being, especially a baby [...]
|
| *19.*6 [4] Inversely, /he/ or /she/ may be said of a thing
| instead of /it/ in order to show a certain kind of sympathy with
| or affection for the thing, which is thereby, as it were, raised
| above the inanimate sphere. The best-known instance is /she/
| said of a ship or boat (even if it has a masculine name);
| railway-men will speak of the locomotive or train, and
| motor-owners of their car, as /she/. Some people will similarly
| refer to their pipe or watch as /he/. In such cases the speaker
| does not really attribute sex to the thing in question, and the
| choice of a sexual pronoun is occasioned only by the fact that
| there is no non-sexual pronoun available except the inert /it/.
|
| *19.*6[5] Alongside of this popular use of the sexual pronoun
| we have another, which is due to a strong literary tradition and
| in which it is generally the Latin gender that determines the
| choice of /he/ or /she/. Thus the sun is /he/, and moon /she/.
| When a country is spoken of as a personal agent it is called
| /she/:
|
| /England/ is justly pround of /her/ great poets.
|
| Similarly
|
| /Oxford/ taught me as much Greek and Latin as /she/ could
| (Ruskin).
|
| When /Nature/, /Fortune/, etc., are personified, /she/ is the
| pronoun used:
|
| /Nature/ had lavished /her/ gifts on him.
|
| Similarly /she/ is used to such abstract notions as:
|
| /Musicke/ with /her/ silver sound (Sh.).
|
| I love /Wisdom/ more than /she/ loves me (Byron).
|
| /Science/ has failed because /she/ has attempted the
| impossible.
|
| But /love/ is often spoken of as /he/ (after /Eros/, /amor/),
| and so is /time/.
|
(Otto Jespersen, "Essentials of English Grammar", 1933 (1964), S.
188-195.)
Die Sonne als "he" und der Mond als "she" ist Dichtersprache, wobei
ich mich frage, ob es noch Dichter gibt, die so schreiben.