In English this difference can be traced in the system of pronouns.
|
Animate |
Inanimate |
|
he, she |
it |
|
who |
what |
|
who |
which |
|
somebody, someone |
something |
|
anybody, anyone |
anything |
|
nobody, no one |
nothing |
|
everybody, every one |
everything |
In English the borderline is not so clear.
From ancient times in English they used ‘it’ to speak about inanimate objects.
‘It’ is also used when we speak about babies and animals when we are not sure about their genders.
The more interested the speaker is the more likely the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ are going to be used.
Sailors to speak about their ship as ‘she’. And modern car owners descre their cars as ‘she’.
‘Sun’ in Old English was described as ‘she’, and ‘moon’ was – ‘he’.
