Re: More on the Hermetic Language

On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 07:56:07AM -0600, Paul Burgess wrote:
> 3/12/03 3:19:12 PM, Christophe Grandsire
> <christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:
[snip]
> > And in which cases wouldn't you? Because you want to
> > keep your gender secret, or it's irrelevant to the conversation, or
> > it's impolite?
>
> It would just tend on occasion to drop out-- moreso in
> informal conversation, and I should think moreso if I
> were using a large number of adjectives to describe
> myself. Somewhat idiomatic! However, once a noun or
> pronoun is explicitly engendered, then the adjectives
> that modify it *have to* be explicitly engendered as
> well.
[snip]

Interesting. This is somewhat similar to Ebisedian's treatment of gender
(although Ebisedian is a lot more pedantic about such things).

Basically, in Ebisedi culture, it is very rude to use the incorrect gender
in pronouns. There are convoluted, pedantic rules for determining which
gender should be used: if the person being referred to is known to be male
or female, the masculine or feminine MUST be used. However, if one is
unsure, one MUST use the epicene instead. It is dangerous to guess when
you don't know, because if you guessed wrong, you're a social outcast.
(Even if you guessed right, the person concerned may be offended if he/she
thinks that you couldn't possibly have known, and therefore must be one of
the uncivilised outcasts who guess at such things.) And it is equally
dangerous to not to stop using the epicene once the person's gender
becomes clear, because it will mark you as a uncivilised ignoramus. And it
is socially taboo to ask someone their gender; they would think, what kind
of idiot is this who can't tell from the hints I drop?!

This can get tricky in situations where you can't actually see a person
you're speaking with; you have to pay very careful attention to how they
refer to themselves (the Ebisedian 1st person pronoun is inflected for
gender). You start with an epicene pronoun, and then switch as soon as it
becomes clear.


T

--
Try to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out. -- theboz

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