Education of the republic of uzbekistan termez state university foreign philology faculty the department of english language and literature

The Loss of Gender in Middle English
"'[F]unctional overload' . . . seems to be a plausible way to account for what we observe in Middle English, that is, after Old English and Old Norse had come into contact: gender assignment often diverged in Old English and Old Norse, which would have readily led to the elimination of it in order to avoid confusion and to lessen the strain of learning the other contrastive system. . . .

"[I]n an alternative account, it was the contact with French that played the role of a catalyst in the eventual loss of gender in Middle English: when French entered the English language, the distinction of gender became problematic, because speakers were confronted with two quite different gender categories. Since it is always difficult to learn gender in a second language, the consequence of this conflict was that gender was given up in Middle English."
3. Gender neutrality in English
Gender neutrality in English became a growing area of interest among academics during Second Wave Feminism, when the work of structuralist linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and his theories on semiotics became better known in academic circles. By the 1960s and 1970s, post-structuralist theorists, particularly in France, brought wider attention to gender-neutrality theory, and the concept of supporting gender equality through conscious changes to language. Feminists analyzing the English language put forward their own theories about the power of language to create and enforce gender determinism and the marginalization of the feminine. Debates touched on such issues as changing the term "stewardess" to the gender-neutral "flight attendant", "fireman" to "firefighter", "mailman" to "mail carrier", and so on. At the root of this contentiousness may have been feminists' backlash^{[citation needed]} against the English language's shift from "grammatical gender" to "natural gender" during the early Modern era,^[28] coinciding with the spread of institutional prescriptive grammar rules in English schools. These theories have been challenged by some researchers, with attention given to additional possible social, ethnic, economic, and cultural influences on language and gender.^[29] The impact on mainstream language has been limited,^[30] but these theories have led to lasting changes in practice.
Features of gender-neutral language in English may include:

• 
  Avoidance of gender-specific job titles, or caution in their use;^[31]
  
• 
  Avoidance of the use of man and mankind to refer to humans in general;
  
• 
  Avoidance of the use of he, him and his when referring to a person of unspecified sex (see under § Personal pronouns above).
  

Certain naming practices (such as the use of Mrs and Miss to distinguish married and unmarried women, respectively) may also be discouraged on similar grounds.