Inanimate nouns in personification

As a rule, inanimate nouns are neuter. However, in the poetical and the rhetorical style or even in the everyday speech, they may be treated as either masculine or feminine.

1. Nouns which can be masculine denote:

a) natural elements and phenomena characterized by force: wind, sun, winter, ocean, death.

e.g. Mr. Wind was an old gentleman who lived in the mountains.

b) violent passions and actions: anger, fear, crime, war, love.

e.g. The War, with his grim face, came again to take his toll.

c) rivers and mountains: the Danube, the Thames, Mount Everest.

e.g. You can see old father Thames.

2. Nouns which can be feminine denote:

a) natural elements and phenomena implying fertility or attachment: earth, moon, sea, spring, morning, evening.

e.g. Good Mother Earth will give us her fruits.

b) gentle feelings or abstractions: hope, modesty, devotion, friendship, peace, truth, fame.

e.g. Peace will soon wave her flag again.

c) negative passions and feelings: jealousy, ambition, revenge, pride, treason.

e.g. Jealousy often walks with her sister revenge.

d) countries viewed as political or economic units.

e.g. The book is about Ukraine and her people.

e) vessels or vehicles to which an affectionate attitude is attached: ship, car, boat, bus.

e.g. Have you seen our new boat? Isn't she beautiful?

The category of case

The category of case refers to the relation in which one noun stands to some other word in the sentence.

Some grammarians speak about two cases in English: genitive (possessive) and common. Others support the idea of four cases: the nominative, the possessive/genitive (analytic and synthetic), the dative and the accusative; the possessive/genitive analytic is also known as Norman genitive or French genitive (e.g. the future of mankind, the roof of the house, the leaves of the tree), the possessive/genitive synthetic is also known as Saxon genitive (e.g. John's wife, my friend's name, Alex's job).

According to the first classification the genitive case is formed by adding -'s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only ' (the apostrophe) to plural forms ending in -s:

singular: a student's book

plural: students' books

Note:

1. Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the apostrophe s in the plural:

singular: a woman's dress

plural: women's dresses

2. Nouns ending in -s form the genitive case in two ways:

Dickens' novels

Dickens's novels

The pronunciation of the genitive case ending follows the same rules as the pronunciation of the plural ending.

Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words (the group genitive): Ann and John's room.

As to its use the genitive case falls under:

1. The Dependent Genitive.

2. The Absolute Genitive.

The Dependent Genitive is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it.

The Absolute Genitive may be used without any noun or be separated from the noun it modifies.

The Dependent Genitive

1. The chief meaning of the genitive case is that of the possession: John's idea, his uncle's flat.

2. The Dependent Genitive may express the doer of an action (the so-called subjective genitive) or show that some person is the object of the action (the so-called objective genitive): e.g She knew it was Mary's step. Or: Gwendolen's reception in the neighbourhood fulfilled her uncle's expectations.

3. The noun in the genitive case may denote qualitative relations: e.g. He looked smart in his new officer's clothes.

The use of the genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions is rather limited.

The genitive case of nouns expressing time, space and weight is widely used: two days' time.

The genitive case is used in some set expressions: for heaven's (God's) sake, to one's heart's delight, at one's wit's end, a stone's throw, a hair's breadth.

The Absolute Genitive

1. The Absolute Genitive may be used anaphorically: her face has a vague resemblance to her brother's.

2. The Absolute Genitive may have local meaning: the baker's, the tobacconist, my aunt's, etc.

The Absolute Genitive may be introduced by the preposition of: She is a relation of the Colonel's.

According to the second classification we have 4 cases: the nominative, the genitive (possessive), the accusative and the dative.

A: The Nominative case has the syntactic function of a subject, predicative or apposition.

B: The Genitive case has the function of an attribute or a predicative:

From the point of view of meaning, the Genitive case may be possessive, of origin, subjective, objective, descriptive, partitive and of measure:

possessive – Mrs. Johnson's passport (Mrs. Johnson has a passport) the earth's gravity / the gravity of the earth (The earth has a certain gravity)

subjective – the parents' consent (The parents consented...)

the decline of trade (trade declined...)

objective – the prisoner's release (...released the prisoner)

a statement of the fact (...stated the facts)

of origin – mother's letter (The letter is from Mother)

the wines of France (France produces wines)

descriptive – a doctor's degree (a doctoral degree, a doctorate)

of measure – ten days' absence (The absence lasted ten days)

partitive – the earth's surface / the surface of the earth (The earth has a (rough) surface)

From the point of view of form, the Genitive case may be:

1. The Synthetical (Saxon) Genitive;

-'s (apostrophe s) is added to the singular number or to the irregular plural, e.g. the girl's house, the women's letter;

' (apostrophe) is added to the regular plural or to proper nouns ending in -s, e.g. the girls' book, Dickens' works.

The Synthetical Genitive may be used with the following types of nouns:

- nouns denoting persons or names of persons (e.g. George's letter, the doctor's order);

-nouns denoting other beings when given some importance or in personification (e.g. the cow's milk, the spider's web);

- nouns denoting measurement, time, space, quantity, value (e.g. a two months' vacation, yesterday's news, a two miles' walk, a pound's worth of potatoes);

Note: measurement can also be expressed by means of a compound adjective;

- collective nouns (e.g. the government's decision);

- inanimate nouns in personification, i.e. geographical names, vehicles, abstractions, natural phenomena, institutions, celestial bodies (e.g. England's history, the ship's crew, freedom's voice, the day's heat, the world's economy, the sun's rays). When such nouns are followed by a superlative adjective or by “only, first, last”, the Synthetical Genitive may be replaced by a prepositional phrase with “in”;

- other nouns of special relevance to human activity (e.g. the mind's development, my life's aim, duty's call, love's spirit).

When we heard a noun is not expressed, we may speak of the elliptic genitive.

2. The Analytical Genitive with the preposition “of” is used mainly with neuter nouns (e.g. the cover of the book). In certain situations, it is preferred to the Synthetical Genitive (e.g. the responsibility of the man at the wheel, the murder of John, a great admirer of Shakespeare, the suffering of the poor).

The double genitive is a construction with a synthetical and analytical genitive (e.g. a friend of Henry's).

C: The Dative case is marked by the preposition “to” and “for” or by word-order; it has the function of an indirect object. Sometimes, it can modify a whole sentence.

e.g. To John, there is nothing more beautiful in the world.

It can also indicate direction:

e.g. He waved his hand to the girl from the train.

There are two types of the Dative:

1. The prepositional Dative, that is used in the following situations:

- after verbs like announce, belong, communicate, describe, explain, introduce, listen, suggest, translate, speak, occur, reply, dictate:

e.g. Explain to Mary what it means.

He didn't reply to his parents.

- when the Dative is governed by an adjective or a noun:

e.g. He was kind to the old woman.

- when the Accusative precedes the Dative:

e.g. Give the money to your brother.

2. The Dative without a preposition is used when the Dative precedes the object of the sentence:

e.g. He showed the boy his new book.

D: The Accusative case can function as a direct object, a prepositional object, an adverbial or an attribute.

Note: - certain verbs are followed by two accusatives: answer, ask, envy, forgive, hear, save, teach; e.g. She taught Jane English.

• certain verbs are followed by a noun in the Accusative which is a cognate object. This noun is usually modified by an adjective; e.g. He died a miserable death.