Re: Gender

Christophe Grandsire wrote:


>En réponse à Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...>:
>
>> Incidentally, I went to the zoo today and discovered that as far as
>> I'm
>> concerned, every animal, regardless of sex, is male in gender. It seems
>> a
>> very grandmother thing to do, though, as (IME) they tend to call all
>> animals male, even if they know for a fact that it's female.

Who is "they"?  The visitors? (Excusable-- one has to look pretty closely to
determine the sex of many mammals, heavy fur and tails sometimes obscure the
vital evidence) In Engl. "he" is generic, until proven otherwise.  Or the
descriptive placards?  (inexcusable, I'd say).
>
>Even cats? I've been taught that cats were considered female in gender,
unless
>their sex was known...
IIRC from all the nature programs on TV, only lions are easily
distinguished.  As to kitty cats, use of "she" seems to be the rule, at
least among non-cat-owners.  I have friends who _consistently_ refer to my
crew as "she", even though they all have male names-- and I just as
consistently correct my friends' use of 'she'.  Some pipple never learn.

Reply