Masculinity of the English language
Discuss the masculinity of the English language
Answer: The Danish linguist who had the foremost authority on English Grammar, Otto Jespersen identifies the English language with positive masculinity. He notices that it is an adult human language and very little feminine or childish about it. He established his thesis with references to sound systems, endings, monosyllabicism, restraint of expression, and so on.
First, the English sound system is very clear and precise. Consonants and vowels are precise and distinct around them and as a result, language has become more clear and distinct in its phonetic structure. Consonant sounds are very predominant in English. When pronouncing in English, two or more consonants lack words, not spellings, for example, prompt, temptation, draft, fulfillment, resource, point, feast, and so on. Parts of the speakers need energy to pronounce these words. The predominance of consonant words has given the English language a kind of masculine power. There is no such obscure or semi-obscure consonant in English in Danish. An English consonant is rarely replaced by a vowel on either side of it. Vowels, for the most part, are independent of consonants, and in this case English has now largely deviated from Old English. However, the consonant gatherings have been continuously eased up - for instance, in the initial ten verses of Tennyson's "Locksley Hall", there are just 33 words between the two consonants, thus phonically speaking, English has masculine power but not cruel power.
Conciseness, sharpness and brevity are the hallmarks of the male style. English, from this point of view, is more masculine than most languages. In grammar it has got rid of many excesses that are found in earlier English and the most knowledgeable language. It either reduced the ends to the shortest possible size or eliminated them. In sentences like "all the wild animals that live there", articles, adjectives and relative pronouns are similarly unable to get any sign of the plural number. The feeling is expressed with the utmost clarity imaginable. We can also notice the lack of business in the sentences, e.g., he was taken prisoner during the war in Germany, and so on. There are many English proverbs like bus for omnibus, picture for photograph, phone for telephone etc. which have the concentrated power of monosyllabicism found in old Chinese. Some examples of such monosyllabic proverbs are served before it comes first; Haste makes waste; Learn and survive.
The English language is characterized by moderation in expression. This restraint and restraint are male characteristics. An Englishman dislikes strong or hyperbolic expressions of approval or praise. "She's rather handsome", "It's not half bad" is often the highest praise that can be done by an Englishman. English uses far fewer numbers than other languages. Diminutives like ‘-let’, ‘-ling’, when they do not express intentional disdain or irony is used to denote the actual smallness of things instead of emotion (favorite ending). The endings of such words, such as '-y', ‘-ie’ meaning 'Billy', 'Dicky', 'Aunty', 'Birdie', are much more commonly used by children or adults when talking than usual.
Business-like virile qualities of English language also manifest themselves in things like word-order. In English, an auxiliary verb does not stand far from its main verb; an adjective almost always stands before its noun. English has shown clarity and logic in terms of time difference. The difference between what he has seen in the past and what compound he has seen is that there is great continuity. Again, English is the tree from the grammatical pedantry. Families and clergy, grammatically speaking, are singular numbers; But in reality, they indicate a plurality. Most languages consider such words as singular, but in English it is essential to add a verb to the singular, or to add the verb to the plural if the plural idea predominates. This opportunity is additionally found in the vocabulary. Each author is free to choose from any source of his words or from another language.
The English language is characterized by a huge richness of vocabulary. The characteristic of men is to choose the right word, with the help of which their idea can be given. As a result, they are less flexible and more suspended than women.
Thus, the English language is methodical, enterprising, business-like and calm. It doesn’t care about elegance. It follows logical continuity and is opposed to strict rules of grammar and vocabulary.
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