3 ms·
Just an interesting bit of human psychology: a motorcycle could be either gender as it's strongly analogous to a horse, but a car is always female. In language
by rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
Just an interesting bit of human psychology: a motorcycle could be either gender as it's strongly analogous to a horse, but a car is always female.
In languages with gendered nouns, objects which can have humans inside of them (e.g. cars, boats, houses) are almost universally female (presumably because females have wombs), and this leaks into English pronouns as well.
- fesoliveira 7y ago>... a motorcycle could be either gender as it's strongly analogous to a horse, but a car is always female. In Brazilian Portuguese, we use masculine pronouns for cars ("o carro"). Same goes for boat ("o barco") and plane ("o avião"). This can also be seen in Spanish ("el coche", "el barco", "el avión"). I believe that the gender these things are referred to in languages with gendered nouns is more linked to the etymology and development of linguistics than psychology, although it is very likely that the later has some influence as well.