Re: Metrical Stress, Feet, Syllables, Genders, Email Servers etc.

Philippe Caquant wrote:
> Maybe that's we KNOW about computers (and programs;
> the notions of computers and programs being very
> intricated among common users), but not how we FEEL
> it.
I think maybe this is Sapir-Whorf at work.  :-)  I certainly FEEL, not
just intellectually know, that a computer is no more animate than a car
or bicycle.

> Is it ? I thought it was 'computador'.
Yep.  Just looked it up.  It is computadora.  Probably influence from
_la maquina_

> It is quite usual to hear phrases like 'Il me dit des
> trucs bizarres', 'Il veut pas faire ce que je lui
> dis', 'Il est plante', 'Il m'insulte' (*), etc, about
> the computer, or rather, the whole (hardware +
> software). That means that the computer is perceived
> as something nearly human, even if everybody agrees of
> course that it is not.
Interesting.  I don't believe I've ever heard an English speaker
referring to a computer as anything but "it"*.  It sounds very bizarre
to me to say "he".  In fact, when particularly upset at a computer doing
something you don't want it to, you'd refer to it as "that [expletive of
choice] thing".

*I have a friend whose named her computer Daisy, and will sometimes use
"she", but I think that she intends to sound cute by using that.  :-)

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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