Re: Gender

> Steg Belsky wrote:
> > Hmm...i never thought about that.  But i doubt that a corpse would be p=
ut
> > in the neuter category, since all it is is a person who is
> > "life-impaired" as the joke goes - and people (except for artificial
> > androids, etc.) can't be of the neuter gender.
>=20
> Well, it seems natural to me (since a corpse *is* inanimate), but to
> each his own, I suppose.
It is inanimate, but not physically genderless (unless it has passed into t=
he=20
more advanced stages of "life-impairment"...).  However, in my language at=
=20
least, you could never refer to it as being a proper human (i.e. no suffix =
-el,=20
-as, -yn; you would have to use these as prefixes -- asfyarg (male corpse),=
=20
ynfyarg (female corpse), elfyarg (human corpse, no gender specified) -- and=
 its=20
pronomial class would be the inanimate "det" --> "elet" (a human-like thing=
)),=20
as it no longer has both the physical and sentience aspects of a human bein=
g. =20
An "animate" but non-sentient thing has the suffix -ed (e.g. a machine such=
 as=20
an airplane or a simple robot), a sentient but *not neccessarily* physical=
=20
entitiy is -eld (which has the sense of "human-machine, -el-ed"; artificial=
=20
intelligences are where things become really interesting, as they may inhab=
it=20
any number of lower-level virtual universes as well as the physical one; Ar=
oven=20
allows no fundamental distinction between virtual and physical realities). =
=20
Going off on a bit of a tangent, an especially male-like intelligence (such=
 as=20
Comm. Data :-) is -eldas, a female-like one (like, er, his "mother"?) -eldy=
n=20
(their end position implying that the "human" qualities implied by -as, -yn=
 are=20
more important than the artificial body (these require a physical, human-li=
ke=20
form); it would take a very human-like intelligence to be worthy of such a=
=20
designation, though...

--Josh

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