Re: Homosexuality and gender identity

Henrik Theiling scripsit:

> Many
> larger animals have two names, one being preferrably used when the
> biological gender is unknown.  That generic termn is sometimes the
> feminime form: 'Katze' (cat), 'Kuh' (cow), etc., sometimes the
> masculine form: 'Hund' (dog), 'Tiger' (tiger) and sometimes even,
> there is a special word being neuter: 'Schwein' (pig).
In English we go one better, having both "pig" and "hog" apart from the
gendered terms "boar" and "sow".  However, many people feel unhappy about
about using "cows" for steers, so there is something of a lexical gap
for the sense "individual of _Bos taurus_.  In general, the fate of
such an individual depends so heavily on gender and castration status
that farmers (who are chiefly concerned) simply don't need a generic term,
I guess.

In general it is the domestic animals who have gendered names, though
"fox"/"vixen" is an exception (I suppose you could say that in England
the fox is a quasi-domesticated animal for hunting purposes, though).
The same rules apply to which animals are used to characterize humans:
"dog" is commonplace, and "bitch" so common that its derogative human use
outweighs its original use as "female _Canis familiaris_"; but only on
this list would it be suitable to describe someone as "an absolute
stegosaurus".  (Hi, Steg.)

--
My confusion is rapidly waxing          John Cowan
For XML Schema's too taxing:            jcowan@reutershealth.com
    I'd use DTDs                        http://www.reutershealth.com
    If they had local trees --          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
I think I best switch to RELAX NG.

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