Re: OT: Gender Bending Moro

In a message dated 4/3/2005 3:15:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
zhosh@2BEARS.COM writes:

>I'll seek out the book [Gender] to read, but I seldom take one person's
>assertions as universally true.
Very wise.

Another interesting book is _Gender Shifts in the History of English_ by Anne
Curzon.  She notes (in chapter 5) that the English word "girl" formerly meant
"child (of either sex)."  Conceivably, English itself may have gone through a
phase in which the same word (in this case, "girl") was used for "child
(generically)" and "girl (specifically)," like the Moro word you mentioned.

She also says, 'Historically, there is an observable tendency to use
sex-specific terms for male children in contrast to gender-neutral terms for children,
which must then be assumed to refer to girls.  This phenomenon is illustrated
by the word "child" in an OED quotation from Shakespeare's _A Winter's Tale_:
"A very pretty barne; A boy, or a childe, I wonder?"  It may be that for
children, as opposed to adults,  girls are the more culturally salient subset.  It
has been noted before that words for baby animals often come to refer to
women . . . and it appears that words for human children also show a tendency to
specify to refer to females -- of all ages.  A prime example would be the
recent semantic shifts in the English word "babe," which has come to refer to
women, particularly attractive women.' [p. 157]

>As to the relationships between social gender and natlangs, I dislike
>the ultra-feminist view (i.e. all men are forever out to oppress women
>in any & every way) but 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?

>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-Wohrf
>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.

Doug

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