Re: OT: Gender Bending Moro

> > am willing to entertain the idea that classes, in
> > a language which already has them, can shift to
> > reflect a male bias.
>
> Do you have any possible examples in mind?
With me focusing on staying employed and staying alive, it's never
been a research topic on which I spent much time; so, no, not beyond
those already noted by others here (i.e. Spanish, etc.) for which
one would need a great deal of data about proto-"Latin".

> >Q: Am I the only one who perceives professional linguists
> >as prone to grab onto an idea and run it to its extreme?
> >(e.g. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)?
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here; it is my impression that
> most linguists are not enthused about Sapir/Whorf at all,
> and have no inclination to take it to extremes.
I was using the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as an example (that's what
the "e.g." preceding means). "Language can influence thought" was
ramped up to "Language determines thought", which was batted about
until rejected; and is now re-appearing as the "can influence"
version.

Same with the hypothesis of language classes being related to social
gender. Saying "classes, in a language which already has them, CAN
shift to reflect a male bias" is to me less extreme than "male bias
IS exhibited via classes in languages".