In linguistics, declension is the changing of the form of a word. This shows its function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. The inflectional change of verbs is called conjugation.
Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and articles to indicate number (e.g. singular, dual, plural), case (e.g. nominative case, accusative case, genitive case, dative case), gender (e.g. masculine, neuter, feminine), and a number of other grammatical categories.
For example, in English, if there is more than one "boy", the word must become "boys." For example, "My family has two girls and one "boy", but my wife's family has two girls and three "boys"". The form "boy" is singular, meaning there is only one of the noun, and the form "boys" is plural, meaning there is more than one of the noun. You must know the noun's singular form if you want to find it in an English dictionary.
Also in English, a noun can change if it owns something. For example, if a toy belongs to one boy, the toy is the "boy's" toy, but if it belongs to two or more boys, it becomes the "boys"' toy. Both numbers of the noun have this word case, which is called the genitive case. Word case is when a word form changes depending on what part of the sentence it is.
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is a way of organizing words in a language. It is a way of deciding the inflection, or change in form, that a word has. Some languages have grammatical gender, like Spanish and Arabic, but others do not, like Chinese, Japanese, and Estonian.
Proto-Indo-European, the supposed ancestor language of Indo-European languages, had three genders, masculine (male), feminine (female), and neuter (neutral).
A word's gender decides how to say a word. For example, the German word for "man" is masculine ("der Mann"), the word for "woman" is feminine ("die Frau"), and the word for "girl" is neuter ("das Mädchen"). The gender of a word may not have connection with its biological sex in certain languages; it is instead a way to organize words grammatically. Many Indo-European languages, like Russian, German, and Latin, still have all three genders.
Some Indo-European languages have lost the neuter gender and either replaced it or completely got rid of it. In French, all singular nouns are either masculine ("the boy" "le garçon") or feminine ("the girl" "la fille"), but all plural nouns use the same articles ("the boys" "les garçons" and "the girls" "les filles").
In Spanish, there are only masculine and feminine nouns, but they are usually marked by a vowel at or near the end. Most masculine nouns end with the vowel "-o", and most feminine nouns end with the vowel "-a". For animate (living) nouns, the gender of the noun is always connected to its biological gender. For example, a male dog is "perro", and a female dog is "perra". If the gender is unknown, the noun is automatically masculine. In plural forms, if at least one of the nouns is male, the plural noun must be masculine, even if most of the members are feminine, like in "the friends" "los amigos". However, if all of the members of a plural noun are female, the plural noun is feminine, as in "las amigas".
English has three genders, but most nouns are not marked by gender. However, the genders of pronouns must match the biological sex of animate nouns. Males must be masculine, and females must be feminine. All plural and inanimate (non-living) nouns must be neuter. Some linguists call English's gender system to represent "natural gender".
In Chinese, words have no grammatical gender, but there are still three gendered pronouns. The masculine pronoun is written as 他, the feminine is 她, and the neuter is 它. Even though all three are written in a different Chinese character, they are all still pronounced exactly the same: "tā" in Mandarin. That is why many Chinese learners of English do not use English pronouns correctly. In some contexts, if the gender is unknown, the pronoun will be written in pinyin as "ta" even if the rest of the document is written in Chinese characters.
In Japanese, grammatical gender is not used since people are usually referred to by name and/or title, rather than a pronoun. However, men and women are expected to use different pronouns. For example, women are supposed to say "watakushi", "watashi", or "atashi" to speak in the first person, but men usually say "watashi" to speak politely and "boku" or "ore" to speak plainly.
Edith Irby Jones
Edith Irby Jones (December 23, 1927 – July 15, 2019) was an American physician. She was born in Conway, Arkansas. Jones was the first African American to be accepted as a non-segregated student at the University of Arkansas Medical School. She was also the first black student to attend racially mixed classes in the American South.
Jones was the first woman president of the National Medical Association. She was added into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame.
Jones died at age 91 on July 15, 2019, in Houston, Texas.
Raja Dhale
Raja Dhale (30 September 1940 – 16 July 2019) was an Indian writer, poet, Ambedkarite thinker, social activist, and political activist. He was one of the founding members of the Dalit Panther. He was a member of the Republican Party of India and led the Raja Dhale faction, after it split.
Dhale was a candidate in the 1999 parliament election for the Mumbai North Central constituency and 2004 parliament elections from Mumbai North East constituency, again on Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha ticket.
Dhale was born in Maharashtra. He died at a Mumbai hospital after falling at his home on 16 July 2019 at the age of 78.
Andrea Camilleri
Andrea Calogero Camilleri (; 6 September 1925 – 17 July 2019) was an Italian novelist and television writer. He was born in Porto Empedocle, Italy. He was known for writing the Inspector Montalbano crime novel series. He also wrote the television series "Le inchieste del commissario Maigret".
Camilleri suffered a heart attack in June 2019 and was placed under critical condition. He died a month later on 17 July 2019 at a Rome hospital, aged 93.
Centreboard
A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a keel on a boat which can be put up and down in the water. It is used in dinghies and by other sailing boats in shallow water but in deep water it gives the boat stability.
The centerboard was invented by Lt. John Schank (c. 1740 – 6 February 1823). He was an officer of the British Royal Navy.
A centerboard can be made from wood, plastic or metal. On small boats today they are usually made from a type of plastic or fibreglass. On bigger boats, they can be made from metal and are also very heavy to help the boat to sail. Some centerboards are on a type of hinge and they swing up and down. Other centerboards just push straight down and are called daggerboards.
On bigger boats, they are used to allow them to cruise in shallow water in bays or rivers.
Obituary
An Obituary is a notice of a death. An Obituary is published by the family of the person who died to let more distant family members and friends know about the death. Funeral homes commonly publish obituaries. A description of the person who died is usually included in the obituary. Funeral arrangements are usually part of an obituary. An obituary is distributed via a publication in a newspaper, or via manual handing out or posting of pamphlets.
Some newpapers offer a service of writing a biography for the person who died.
Old obituaries are a source of information for people writing biographies.
Cadillac Records
Cadillac Records is a 2008 American biographical drama movie. It was written and directed by Darnell Martin. It explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s. It is about the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and a few of the musicians who recorded for Chess Records.