Re: The Birds and the Bees of Gender

FFlores wrote:

> Michael Mouatt <arcangel@...> wrote:
> > English is an asexual language, isn't
> > it? Why is this so if it is a Germanic language with influences from
> > French?
>
> English is *genderless* (except for the third person singular
> pronouns). I don't know why most European langs have gender
> while English doesn't -- it must be because of the same changes
> that made the case inflections disappear.
As pointed, that's probably evolution.  Sex and gender are two different
things, sex is a biological matter while gender is a gramatic
characteristics.  Just in IE languages there happen to be a gender, calle=
d
"masculine" usually applied to male beings, and a gender called "femenini=
ne"
usually applied to female beings, but inanimate beings could be either
masculine, femenine or neuter with no relationship with sex.

Probably English has stop inflecting after gender and then becamed a
genderless language, and the word gender is being applied as an eufenism =
for
sex.  Probably the count/mass distinction is more important than the
masculine/femenine, and we could say that English do have gender.

Swedish has collapsed masculine and femenine genders, keeping the distinc=
tion
just when sexual beings are rrfered in the use of the pronoun.  There are=
 two
major genders: en-words and ett-words, when en-words includes the former
masculine and femenine, and ett-words is the neuter gender.  Traditional
en-words are divided between masculine (those who would use the pronoun
_han_), femenine (_hon_) and natural (_den_), while neuter words use the
pronoun _det_.  Adjective agreement depends on the en/ett distinction, an=
d
colapses in the plural.

Then:
masc:
en pojke - a boy
pojken - the boy
en stor pojke - a big boy
den store pojke - the big boy
han - he
pojkar - boys
pojkarna - the boys
stora pojkar - big boys
de stora pojkarna - the big boys
de - they

fem:
en flicka - a girl
flickan - the girl
en stor flicka - a big girl
den stora flickan - the big girl
hon - she
flickor - girls
flickorna - the girls
stora flickor - big girls
de stora flickorna - the big girls
de - they

nat:
en hund - a dog
hunden - the dog
en stor hund - a big dog
den stora hund - the big dog
den - it
hundar - dogs
hundarna - the dogs
stora hundar - big dogs
de stora hundarna - the big dogs
de - they

neut:
ett =F6ga - an eye
=F6gat - the eye
ett stort =F6ga - a big eye
det stora =F6gat - the big eye
det - it
=F6gon - eyes
=F6gonen - the eyes
stora =F6gon - big eyes
de stora =F6gonen - the big eyes
de - they

The only difference noticed in the en-word is the -e inflection of
determinative adjectives for the masculines.  But studing the plurals the=
re
shoud be a distinction in en-words: -er plurar words (en telefon, telefon=
er)
and -ar plural words (en hund, hundar).  They are usually not counted as
gender but a distinction between borrewed words (telefoner) and original
Swedish words (hundar).  Femenine words which end in -a, take -or for plu=
ral
(en flicka, flickor).

All this means that genders are one thing that can be used to: classify w=
ord
(not necesarily the concepts the words refere to), mark patterns of
inflection, agree with pronouns, etc.  Genders don't express biological
concepts.

>
>
> --Pablo Flores
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>  The trouble with the rat race is that even
>  if you win,  you're still a rat.
>                                              Lily Tomlin



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