Question: I've been taught that a *child* is gender-neutral noun. But in the textbook on linguistics I've been reading, the noun is used as feminine. For example, a sentence in the book goes like this:

> 
> The child must also learn many aspects of grammar from her specific linguistic environment.
> 
> 
> 

Is there an explanation for the use of the pronoun *her* instead of *its*?

Answer: 
Child **is** gender neutral. As a result, when referring to a child, one must then choose a pronoun **he**, **she** or **they** when referring to the said child, as English does not have a gender neutral way of referring to that individual. This causes a problem for writers. Whatever you choose could be wrong.

Some would write **he**, but that sounds sexist and presumptive. Some write **they**, but this does not confirm the singular as it could refer to many. As an alternative some writers have taken to using **she** to balance those that historically have used the masculine form.

Other writers go to great lengths to avoid any of these forms by just rewriting the sentences completely.

Stack Exchange questions and answers have the same problem. Do we refer to a writer as **he**, **she**, **they**...? Whatever one chooses makes implications that it may not be correct.

We almost never use **it** or **its** to refer to a child, as this form is reserved for objects and not people and thus is considered to be demeaning.
"Child" is, indeed, gender-neutral.

For a long time, "he" was considered to be both the male pronoun and the non-gender-specific pronoun (see [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He#Gender_neutral)). An older text would talk about a child learning from his environment and it would be understood to mean that both male and female children do so. "They" has a [long history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they) of use as a gender-neutral pronoun and is widely accepted, though some continue to insist that it is wrong. The use of "she" as a gender-neutral pronoun appears to be something of a backlash against the former use of "he"; it's quite common in modern writing.

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-neutral_pronouns#It_and_one_as_gender-neutral_pronouns) notes that "it" is considered OK to refer to a child in situations where there's no emotional investment, especially in scientific contexts. Indeed, Wikipedia uses your very example as a case where it's reasonable to use "it". On the other hand, if I was talking about your child and said "Is it OK if I give it some candy?", you'd be fully justified in slapping me in the face or worse.

The least controversial situation is to just rephrase the sentence. For example, "they" is absolutely uncontroversially the gender-neutral *plural* pronoun, and the sentence you quote in your question seems to be talking about children in general, rather than a specific single child. Thus,

> 
> Children must also learn many aspects of grammar from their specific linguistic environment.
> 
> 
> 

(Or, if you prefer, "linguistic *environments*", since not all children have the same one.)