The categories of 'gender' in English are close to our non-linguistic recognition of personality and sex, but even here some animals(the bull...he or it) and other things (the good ship...she or it) are variously treated. The gender categories of most Indo-European languages, such as the two of French or the three of german, do not agree with anything in the practical world, and this is true of most such classes.
- Bloomfield (1935), a pag.271