Re: The Birds and the Bees of Gender

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Fascinating!  I'd never even THOUGHT of that as a problem.  But now that
> I think about it, your absolutely right, why isn't "lettuce" and "rice"
> countable?  ESPECIALLY lettuce, since it's so large, you can easily have
> "one lettuce".
The phenomenon extends as well, since there is a sort of "agreement"
that occurs. "Many" and "a few" go with countables; "much" and "a
little" go with uncountables (cf. "beaucoup de cafe'" AND "beaucoup de
carottes"; "mucho dinero" AND "muchos idiomas"). "A lot of" can go with
either (particularly in affirmative sentences). What I find especially
interesting is that, while I assume Romance lang speakers are inculcated
with the notion of "masculine", "feminine", and "agreement" in primary
and secondary education, we never even touched on this in high school
English (and judging from Nik's reaction, I take it my high school was
not the exception). ESL books, on the other hand, devote at *least* a
chapter to the subject.

Kou