Re: French (was Re: Re: Optimum number of symbols)

> I think part of the confusion here is using the terms 'masculine' and
> 'feminine', again a hangover from classical grammar. No French person
thinks
> of a chair as being feminine (in the 'womanly' sense). These are merely
> labels for the two gender classes of French. The word 'gender' in English
is
> associated with sex, but in linguistic terms, it is merely a noun class.
> Other languages have noun classes based on other criteria, for example,
> shape, animacy, and so on.
> Ships are still feminine in English (and incidentally, I have never heard
> any other plural form of ox other than oxen) because the old sailors felt
> themselves to be as 'bonded' to their ships as to their wives!
> Mike
I realize that,  but then you have all biologically female things  femenine
(la mere, la soeur, la fille) and all male things masculine (le frere, le
pere, le garcon) (pardon my lack of accents :)) And I was wondering why the
regularity there, when everything else seems arbitrary.

(I can't tell what's going on with my e-mail -- I thought I'd posted
something else recently, but I didn't get any mail from the list for a long
time, and suddenly I've been flooded-- so I apologize if anything wierd
comes from me. I think it's behaving now though. :))

-Kendra
http://www.refrigeratedcake.com
http://www.refrigeratedcake.com/other/theatre -- Vade Mecum (comic)