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

Sure, we have to choose, either masculine or feminine,
and 'ordinateur' (a French word specially invented for
that machine - by the way, more acute than 'computer',
because computers do other things than just computing
by now) is masculine. But the point is that one refers
to a computer as if it was a human being, or at least
an animal. It's not just considered like any machine
(the other special machine is the automobile, which in
French is feminine, but it is not the same kind of
relations). You can say from a computer that 'he told
you something', but hardly from a dictaphone or
automatic phone answerer, although they deliver you
vocal messages.

As to my personal computer's name (Microsoft requested
one when I registered !) I of course called it HAL,
like at least 30% of PC users I think. Cruel lack of
imagination.

--- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote:
> > > Is it ? I thought it was 'computador'.
> >
> Computadora.  However, the (masc.) term ordenador is
> also used-- perhaps
> French influence?
> >
> > > 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....
>
> Isn't this just a function of the lack of a neuter
> pronoun?  (and the lack
> of a neuter gender as well-- every inanimate thing
> must be either masc. or
> fem.).

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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